About Penny Post

Penny Post offers news you can use for the Swindon, Wantage, Marlborough, West Berkshire area. You can follow Penny Post by subscribing to our FREE weekly e-newsletter which reaches over 4,000 people across the area. Or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube and keep visiting this website (which changes on a daily basis).

We are:

informative, with constructive, local news that’s relevant to you;
supportive of local businesses, charities, campaigns and events;
collaborative with local contributors working hard for local people;
celebrating good news and helping to suggest solutions for local issues.

We also publish monthly Penny Post Hungerford and Penny Post Lambourn Valley newsletters.

The Penny Post Ethos

Whereas traditional media often boosts sales through broadcasting bad or sensational news, we are committed to sharing positive, local ‘news you can use’ and to offering affordable advertising, flexible and effective for local businesses.

That’s not to say that we are in denial about bad things but we always suggest what people can do to help make the situation better. We’ve been involved in a number of local campaigns on issues ranging from pub closures to planning appeals, from urgent charity appeals to public meetings and from dubious sewage works to threatened libraries and post offices.

We are reassured by the popularity of Penny Post that this is what people really want. Click here to find out what our lovely readers and clients think of us.

How can I subscribe to the Penny Post newsletters?

To join over 4,000 other Penny Post subscribers, click on the ‘Subscribe’ link below to receive the Penny Post newsletter by email each week.

We don’t pass on details to third parties and you can opt out whenever you wish. The weekly e-newsletters contain local news, events, business recommendations, items wanted or offered, jobs, properties, seasonal recipes and much more. It also posted every week on Facebook and Twitter – all for free. To see a sample newsletter, click here.

Does it cost anything?

No, it is free to subscribe. However, if you have benefitted from Penny Post and would like to give something back please make a donation to this website via PayPal by clicking this button:

What do other people think about Penny Post?

Please click here to see a selection of reactions from subscribers and advertisers.

What do the stats say?

Any online stats can tell a variety of stories. Different sources (for example Google Analytics and the website’s own records) often disagree, but not always in a consistent way. Our email programme, Mailchimp, provides detailed stats but there are often anomalies, again in either direction, from what common sense or other information suggests. If the business of online stats was not such a dark art then everyone would understand it and there would not be so many people trying to sell their services as expert interpreters and improvers.

The figures we’ve given below are therefore what we fairly feel is true based on the various bits of evidence we have or, in the case of email sends and number of subscribers, what we know to be the case.

• The weekly Penny Post e-newsletter is sent by email every Thursday to over 4,000 people (and growing) throughout the Penny Post area.

• The Penny Post Hungerford monthly e-newsletter is sent to about 1,250 people (and growing) in the town.

• The Penny Post Lambourn Valley monthly e-newsletter is sent to nearly 1,000 people (and growing) in the upper Lambourn Valley.

• All these newsletters have an open rate of about 35% (according the Mailchimp, the industry standard is about 15%). In addition, many of the newsletters are opened more than once, forwarded to others or are viewed online. As a result, the weekly newsletters are generally opened between 2,000 and 3,000 times and the two monthly newsletters between 1,000 and 2,000 times.

• The Penny Post website receives around 20,000 page views a month from about 8,500 different visitors.

• Penny Post also has over 5,000 followers via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined.

You might want to balance these cold figures with a more human reaction of what some of our subscribers and clients think of what we do for them: you can read that here.

How can I advertise in Penny Post?

Yes. Please click here for details of our commercial packages. If you need help not precisely cover by these options, get in touch (see below).

How can I contribute to Penny Post?

Subscribers can simply email Penny at penny@pennypost.org.uk or reply to any newsletter to contribute requests, recommendations, local events, items wanted/offered, jobs, properties, seasonal recipes etc.

Can I use any of the articles or posts on Penny Post in my own publication or website?

You are welcome to provide a link to any post on our site but Penny Post cannot guarantee that the post will not be disabled or the url changed so it would be wiser to check with us first. You may also quote extracts of a reasonable length providing you credit Penny Post as the source for this. You may not reproduce in whole or in part anything published on this website without the prior written permission of Penny Post.

Who is behind Penny Post?

Penny Post is compiled by long-time local residents Penny Locke and Brian Quinn from East Garston with contributions from subscribers across the area.

How can I contact you?

Email penny@pennypost.org.uk or brian@pennypost.org.uk.

If you’d rather call, you can reach Penny on 07768 981 658 or Brian on 01488 648 110.

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