Welcome to the preview issue of the Transition Free Press, which we hope will become a flourishing national newspaper.

You could say this is the worst and the best of times to be publishing in print. Worst because we are in a recession, at the tail end of an industrialised civilisation, where “growth at all costs” has begun to play out its consequences. Best because there is a whole new narrative out there, the happening story of Transition you might not see covered by mainstream media. That’s the story we’re aiming to tell.

So take a look at this taster edition, a blueprint of how the paper will look, and the kinds of subjects we will cover every quarter – news with comment and context, features and reviews.

Here it is:  http://issuu.com/transitionfreepress/docs/issue1

As well as viewing it online, we have printed copies that will be available at various events, including the Transition Network Conference in September 2012. Plus you can order copies by post (see bottom of page).

Where are we going? We’re heading for the future. We are not afraid to share our views, ask awkward questions, laugh or explore paths other papers don’t go down in order to get there. What we want is to capture the real-life experiences of people who are discussing and doing Transition, learning to share skills and resources, starting up social enterprises, thinking hard about alternative ways of organising the way we do energy and economics.

We’re looking at the small details in the big picture. We’re optimistic in the face of tough times. But we are also real. We’re real about the awesome challenges of peak oil and climate change and the economic collapse. We’re real about the hard work the projects featured in these pages take (including this paper!) We want to reflect that feet-on-the-ground reality, mixed with the cheerfulness that comes when you’re working with your fellows for a common purpose.

Most of all we want to connect the dots. Our old-style, fossil-fuelled culture works by separating out all the important subjects, by keeping everyone separated and alone. We want to connect people in Transition, connect campaigners and thinkers and people who never heard of energy descent or alternative currency, open up a dialogue, write another story.

L to R: Alexis Rowell, Mike Grenville,
Charlotte Du Cann

So please be introduced to our core team: Editor Charlotte Du Cann; our Designers, Trucie Mitchell and Mihnea Damian; News Editor, Alexis Rowell; Food and Wellbeing Editor, Tamzin Pinkerton; Subeditor, Mark Watson; our Production Manager, Mike Grenville who began the enterprise, Jay Tompt, our Business Manager who will take it forward; and all our contributors, reporting from the field, within the Transition movement everywhere. Thank you everyone for giving your time – the most precious resource we have in our hands right now.

To make future editions happen, we need your support too – in particular we hope you like it enough to want to have copies to give out in your community. Please fill in this short survey to give us an idea of your interest in distributing copies: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GZCKV97

Please get in touch if you would like to contribute or advertise or get involved in any way in with future editions.

For editorial  contact Charlotte Du Cann charlotteducann@transitionnetwork.org
For distribution contact Mike Grenville mgrenville@gmail.com

Order print copies with Paypal. Click here: 4 copies  or  8 copies
Please contact Mike for prices for more copies or postage outside the UK.

Image for front story on alternative currency -Brixton pounds in action by Jonathan Goldberg; Climate impacts day in Texas from 350.org