A sense of how things work; Nova Scotia Policy Review celebrates first anniversary

Starting a small magazine is a thing worth celebrating; but keeping it going is perhaps worth celebrating more. We recently recalled that a year ago, we posted about a quite special and unusual independent news magazine named the Nova Scotia Policy Review that was launched out of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia by Rachel Brighton. So we asked her how things were going on the first anniversary. Here's some of what she told us:

This magazine survives on the insight and turn-of-phrase of its writers and through the interest shown by subscribers, especially those who have chosen to truck copies around the province as ambassadors. Its circulation is unusual: half its readers are individuals and advocacy groups, and half are policy makers, principally in provincial government, but also federal and municipal government. This makes the magazine a bridge between advocates and policy makers.

A number of subscribers have also become contributors and shared their expertise, including “moonlighting” civil servants. The greatest interest in official circles has come from the periphery where civil servants aren’t kept under the thumb.”

The swing towards justice seems a natural one for the reason that Nova Scotia is such a small province. If one person gains from government largesse, it often means someone else loses. The economy isn’t helping everyone equally. As well, our law-making is often done on the fly.

The June issue celebrated the anniversary with a redesign of its cover and a sharper focus on politics, culture and justice; in this particular issue, the emphasis is on poverty. Among the articles are an examination of the flaws in Nova Scotia's childcare plan, threats to education in the North End of Halifax, the implications of a higher minimum wage and critiques the province's source of Columbian coal.

“As you turn the pages, you may sense a palpable desire for a more just society,” said Brighton in her introduction to the anniversary issue.

Some readers have found something global in this local touch, such as Howard Rosenstein, who wrote from Montréal in the March 2008 issue: “The Review is the world in Nova Scotia and, as such, has relevance everywhere.”

Others have found encouragement in the way the Review “speak[s] about the real effects of policy on “we the people”. This is refreshing and absolutely necessary if our government is to fulfill its true mandate to improve our health and welfare rather than the current shorthand version of that: to provide business opportunities to corporations with the hope that prosperity will trickle down.”

Brighton says that, with the anniversary, comes "crunch time":

Renewals are now due and I’m eager to see whether this thing really works. My sense is that readers are still hungry for what they’re missing in their daily paper, and we just lost the only competing paper* in town.

*This is a reference to Transcontinental Media's recent closing of the Halifax Daily News, leaving Haligonians (and Nova Scotians generally) with a choice of the Chronicle Herald or Transcon's free commuter paper Metro.

[The cover photo “Scene on Creighton Street, Halifax” was taken by E.A. Bollinger in 1953. Used with permission, it is part of the Community Album in the virtual exhibit, “African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition”, housed by Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management at www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual.]