2023 in Review: Our most read articles and staff picks from the year
In 2023, we supported even more people to contribute to the magazine with writing, photography, illustrating and editing. Find out what our most-read articles were from the past year as well as our staff’s favourites.
By Jack Howse
It’s been a busy year for the small but mighty team at Greater Govanhill, working out of our bright yellow Community Newsroom that we opened on Bowman Street. The team has grown to five staff members after the hiring of Devon and Samar as trainee journalists in the spring and Zoe joining us as our new advertising and partnerships manager a few months ago.
With this beefed up team and our first full year having our own space to work in, we produced more content than ever before. In the spring the magazine switched from a quarterly release cycle to a bi-monthly one, meaning we released a record five magazines this year, with 184 pages of content. We commissioned articles from all walks of life with the majority of our articles being written by first-time published writers.
We have continued publishing our regular features like Style Icon, Behind the Portrait and Like My Grandmother Used to Make as well as introducing new features such as The Anymen's Crossmyword.
In a year where major national and global events have only further marked the inequalities in our society, we have strove to report about these issues on a local level — whether that is working with New Scots to create short documentaries on the stories that matter to them, investigating how betting shops are located disproportionately in areas of deprivation like Govanhill, or reporting on local school kids who have striked in support of Palestine.
In November our year-long partnership with The Ferret exploring health inequalities in Scotland came to its conclusion. We published stories on period poverty, the medicinal effects of psychedelics, digital inclusion, and cervical screening uptakes in the Roma community. We also co-launched a podcast with The Ferret surrounding health inequalities and worked with the publication Feminism in India to explore health solutions from beyond Scotland.
As ever, our articles’ range was as diverse as Govanhill. We published articles on Southside subcultures, birth companionship and queer gardening as well as publishing a range of media including AI generated articles, poetry and interviews and in different community languages.
While there are so many articles we’d love to highlight, we thought we would share our most read articles from the year plus our team members’ favourite moments from 2023.
Editor’s note: We were lucky to receive some grant funding in 2023 that allowed us to achieve many of the things we did. But the current funding landscape is tough and we are not expecting to receive the same level of grants in 2024. Which is why your help is more needed than ever. If you can afford a few quid each month, please consider becoming a member – or if you are already a member (thank you!), please consider gifting a membership or buying a t-shirt or calendar from our online shop. Click below.
Most Read Articles in Govanhill 2023
Samar — Lascar Heritage Panel
This year has been packed with some fantastic stories and events, so it was really hard to choose just one favourite… so I cheated and chose a few. I enjoyed reading Jack’s piece about the power of psychedelics from earlier this year. Mary’s article, which was part of our health inequalities issue, offered an important insight into motherhood, the asylum system and raised more awareness of services like Amma Birth Companions. Devon’s roundup of some of Govanhill’s clubs was a fun read, offering a look into Govanhill’s underground competitive and creative spaces. First-time contributor Chanderkiran’s article, delving into Govanhill’s dance clubs, was another uplifting piece (I might try out the No Light No Lycra dance group myself!) We’ve also put together a few events in the newsroom, including the Lascars Heritage Panel, which was organised by me, with Rhiannon’s support. It was one of my favourite events - an informative talk unpacking Glasgow’s colonial history and how some of the first South Asian communities arrived in the city as Lascars.
Jack — The Beauties (and Challenges) of Motherhood
My highlight of working at the magazine this year was definitely meeting Mary — our cover star for Issue 11 — and her three children. I first met them when we ran some video journalism workshops for New Scots as part of Refugee Festival Scotland. While Mary and her eldest learnt about documentary filmmaking, me and the two youngest drew animals and probably made too much noise. Afterwards, Mary told me she would like to write about what it is like being a single mother, and to highlight some of the charities that have supported her since being in Glasgow. Next time I saw her she gave me the handwritten article and we published it as the cover story of our magazine with hardly any edits. This is exactly the type of reason Greater Govanhill was started.
Similarly, at these videos workshops we had some particpants who had worked with us on a radio show last year. The show got awarded runner-up in the radio category at the Scottish Refugee Media Awards in June 2023, which was amazing. The radio show that beat us was also a happy triumph — a BBC Radio 4 show which featured Arij and Ibrahim, who had first met the producer of the show through our workshops. It’s so heartening to see these lasting connections we have made with people, and what they are getting up to now.
Zoe — Scottish Beacon Launch
I have only been part of the team since August but even in this short time there's plenty to pick from! I loved the Festive Issue, especially Samar's piece on creating connections and combating loneliness, and Devon's piece on staying warm this winter. They're a reminder of the role community media can play in providing information and serving the community. I've also loved my days in The Community Newsroom, it's so cool to have a shop front in Govanhill and that people pop in to chat or ask questions.
Over the summer I worked with Rhiannon on the launch of the Scottish Beacon, an independent community news collaborative. It's great to see so many community media organisations across Scotland and exciting to think what might be possible now that they're working more closely together.
Laura — Rats!
My favourite thing this year has been working with all the talented illustrators and photographers who contribute to Greater Govanhill. Their work always spark interesting layout design ideas and I have great fun making them. Two that spring to mind are the 'Rats!’ story from Issue 11, and the urban spaces/skateboarding story from Issue 10.
I also love working on the festive issue – it’s a brilliant excuse for me to bang on the Christmas tunes and break out the mince pies in November!
What else we got up to this year…
fitted out the office as a collaborative newsroom space
ran over 20 events, workshops, screenings, panels, and discussions in our Community Newsroom
made the newsroom sustainable through renting out desks
launched The Scottish Beacon as an independent community news collaborative
created a soon-to-be-released FONDS podcast featuring the objects that mean something to you
hired two new trainee journalist/editors
regularly updated the online version of the magazine, community noticeboard, and social media channels
produced a weekly newsletter read by over 1000 people
published five issues of the magazine – and moved to bi-monthly publishing
supported a group in Edinburgh to launch a one-off magazine
supported a group in Dumfries and Galloway to launch a community website
switched to a new online membership platform
launched – and neglected – a Threads channel
produced English language learning resources to accompany back issues
won two awards
created three radio shows with community groups
taken part in the Govanhill International Festival and the Scottish Refugee Festival
collaborated with The Ferret on our project exploring solutions to health inequalities
contributed to a three-part podcast on health inequalities
worked on It’s Criminal – an innovative project combining theatre and journalism
created a funded nine page spread exploring gambling harms
fed into consultations and conversations on improving our neighbourhood
grown our membership to nearly 180 people
Help us to keep going 2024 by visiting our online shop or becoming a member today.