00:00 Hi, I'm Jo Durham from Queen's Parade News in Gosport, Privet Row Gosport. Today I am
00:10 celebrating 20 years since taking over this business.
00:13 20 years?
00:14 20 years.
00:15 Fantastic Jo.
00:16 I can't quite believe it.
00:17 I was going to say, how does that feel?
00:19 Well I'd like to say that I haven't aged much but of course I have. And I'm very glad to
00:24 still be here because there's been quite a dramatic change in the industry. And not only
00:30 the industry, actually in people's attitudes as well. But I'm very lucky here to have people
00:35 who love the shop, love their newspapers, like the community feel that we have here.
00:42 And so I have a great customer core base.
00:44 So is that how you've done it then? Over these 20 years? It's all about keeping in touch
00:49 with those customers?
00:50 Oh absolutely. That to me is, I'm luckily not driven by money, which is probably just as
00:54 well. It is actually people that are important to me. And they seem to quite like the way
00:59 that we all gel together. We have a lot of charity events. And yeah, it is that old school
01:05 sort of corner shop approach.
01:08 Okay. And why are local newsagents still important for people generally?
01:14 Because for some people it is that one person they see a day. You know, people unfortunately
01:18 who have aged, not only, they don't have to be old, but people who maybe have lost confidence,
01:24 lost loved ones, and they find it difficult. Sometimes when they come in here, it is their
01:28 only contact with people. So that's important. Also, again, as I say, it's somewhere to go.
01:33 I know that I can, I've got contacts with families in case I notice a difference in
01:37 their elderly relatives that I can report back. It's just a feeling of a real sense
01:43 of community.
01:44 Okay. And you must have seen a few changes over the 20 years.
01:48 So many changes. But what remains is that people do actually still love that old fashioned
01:53 customer service, that bit of a chat. I know in this digital age, it's not the way for
01:58 everybody, but it does still work for a lot of people. And a lot of people still like
02:02 to get that ink on their hands.
02:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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