John Kerby is CEO of National Talking Newspapers and Magazines, based in Heathfield, East Sussex.
Tell us about your service
The NTNM developed out of the local talking newspaper movement which has been going now for about 40 years. About 26 years ago the idea was raised as to why this couldn't be done for national newspapers. So a remarkable man, Ted Davis, started to produce a weekly digest of the national press from his caravan in Heathfield, East Sussex and then gradually a growing number of magazines. It's now reached the stage where we produce audio recordings and electronic text of over 200 titles, including the weekly and Sunday nationals and a very wide range of magazines, in CDs, cassettes and DAISY CD. The electronic services comprise email or web download of the full text of the national papers and some magazines. We add navigation so, for instance, someone can skip straight to the sports section if they want to.
What do your customers think of the service?
Again and again we get told that it is like old friends coming by each week, or month, bringing them up to date on what's going on in music or gardening. We have a magazine covering almost any interest people may have.
How do you decide which titles to record?
We cover the national press. We try to provide at least the leading magazine titles in any subject. Recently a number of retired doctors requested the Lancet for example, so now we produce that.
What is your most popular title?
It's the Readers' Digest by a long way. And in terms of more unusual titles we have Classic Bus and for those interested in spirituality Two Worlds.
Are you limited to how much you can record?
The audio service is constrained to around 80 minutes, the length of a CD, which is why we do digests of the papers, but you can get most magazines into 80 minutes.
Volunteers play a crucial part in the service, where do you find them?
They are mostly retired people living within a 30 mile radius of Heathfield and want to help provide the service for blind and partially sighted people. We audition our readers because we match the magazine with an appropriate voice but there are also lots of other things volunteers can do to help.
Your studios must be working non-stop?
We have about 200 titles, a lot them are weekly, which means that we have eight or nine studios recording pretty nearly non-stop making 20 recordings a day.
In 2009 you joined forces with RNIB. Has that made a real difference?
The foremost benefit it brought was financial salvation because like a lot of small charities we were struggling and RNIB's support has enabled us to keep going. The much wider advantages are that we could not reach out across the country promoting and fundraising for what we do. RNIB with its national reach is far better placed to do that. The second main area is that we will gradually see a move towards more digital delivery so we naturally fit in to all the work RNIB is doing in future technologies reaching blind and partially sighted people.
NTNM can be contacted on 01435 866102, email info@tnauk.org.uk or visit www.tnauk.org.uk