From humble beginnings

In the early 1970s the founders of the St Albans Review worked for the Herts Advertiser and were busy helping it see off other rivals looking to move in on the city.

Two ad men, Roy Scott and Alan Drake were given the job of countering attempts by the Welwyn and Hatfield Times to establish a free newspaper in the circulation area.

The pair started a rival publication in Welwyn and the tussle ended with the Times’s owner, Westminster Press, selling the publication to the Herts Advertiser.

The buyout helped cement the Herts Advertiser’s hold over its swathe of Hertfordshire and it looked set to enjoy an unchallenged dominance.

But a disagreement broke out between the two ad men and the paper’s management over commission from the newspapers and this prompted the pair to start thinking about founding a new publication.

As the plans progressed, six workers at the Herts Ad handed in their notice to join the fledgling publication.

Recalling the time, Roy, now 72, said the management at the paper was happy about the prospect of this new rival.

He said: “They were telling everyone it would not last six months, they told the staff it would not last six months. They did a lot of things.

“All this did was give us ammo. When we got staff to go out we told businesses advertising was about competition – a car dealer competing with another or an estate agent dealing with another. And the Herts Ad did not like it now someone was competing with it.”

Over the weeks before the launch, the new Review’s team found advertisers in the city were receptive to the concept of a new free newspaper in the town, which would be delivered to readers’ homes.
However, the run-up to the inaugural edition was beset by teething problems.

Roy said: “My immediate memories of producing the first edition of the Review on October 4, 1973, was of all the things that did not go according to plan, as well as some senior personnel who decided at the last minute not to join us for fear of failure.

“The senior positions were editor and distribution manager – two vitally important roles crucial to making all our prior planning successful. A substitute editor was recommended by the person who didn’t want to take the challenge himself. We didn’t know him nor his proven record for such an essential role.”

“My brother, Tony Scott, who was working at the St Albans printers Eversheds in Alma Road, was cajoled into joining us as distribution manager and was given the task of organising the distribution of the Review into more than 50,000 homes in St Albans, Harpenden, Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City every Thursday evening.

“This involved mapping out 500 rounds and finding 50 agents who recruited 10 deliverers who delivered 100 copies. Due to a canvas shortage we couldn’t buy the 500 delivery bags needed and had to find an industrial sewing machine, purchase canvas and make our own delivery bags.”

“The typesetting studios we used couldn’t cope with all the advertising copy we produced so together with our own staff, who had already worked very long hours, they were asked to stay throughout the night to assist with producing the pages needed for press the next day.

“On top of that, and with hardly any sleep, they had to go to the printers in Banbury and help with the collection and then the distribution of 50,000 copies to our agents in mid-Hertfordshire”.

As well as the logistic problems involved with launching a new paper, Mr Scott said the first edition struggled editorially as he believed the new editor was “completely out of his depth”.

Yet the turning point came when a young reporter from the neighbouring paper turned up at the Review’s offices.

“Then out of the blue, on the day we produced the first issue, Don Smith walked in to our offices looking very natty in his trademark bow tie,” said Mr Scott.

“He introduced himself as a reporter for the Echo/Post, a regional evening newspaper housed in Hemel Hempstead.

“We were impressed and immediately offered him a job which he accepted.

“While he served his notice with the Echo/Post Don would call into our office every evening and start work producing stories and news items to ensure our new free newspaper was picked up and read by our readers.

“Within three months we had appointed him editor. He then convinced us to employ two 18 year olds, Andrew Seib and Paul Humphries, as reporters.

“He was able to prove to us that although we knew how to plan and sell space in a newspaper he knew how to produce edition after edition with great editorial coverage.”

Under the stewardship of Don, the Review started to find its feet editorially and realise its potential as a campaigning paper.

Roy added: “It wasn’t long before Don convinced us to employ a photographer, Andy Wright, and soon after other young people joined to complete the newsroom. From then on it was success all the way.

The Herts Advertiser, the paid for local for 115 years, was forced to abandon its cover price in and around 1980 and go ‘free’ in an effort to compete with us for advertising revenue.”

“Don was instrumental in campaigning against a proposed shopping complex in the St Albans City centre and helped defeat the project, which reflected the views of the people living in the city at that time.

“Shortly afterwards he was head hunted by the Herts Advertiser who valued his skills, and joined them as editor in 1978.

“The move did not work out for Don, and he sadly died in 2005. In my eyes he played a massive role in showing us just how powerful a free newspaper could be.”

When it first came out in 1973 the Review was published by SDH Publication Limited, the directors were Roy Scott, Alan Drake and Reg Humphries.

Mr Scott now lives in Guernsey and is involved in a local advertising agency William Lawrence Advertising. Alan, together with his daughter Nicola, are directors of Pegasus 51, which has recently been involved in the proposed new Hilton Hotel on the A405.

Reg lived in Spain and France and died in 2009 at his home in Dorset.