The latest edition of the biannual 40pp title, which was launched in 2005, was published in July with no further issues planned until feedback from the charity’s supporters has been gathered regarding the publication’s future.
“The title acquired a life of its own and became hugely popular, which is not a bad thing, but it has been consuming funds that are intended to go elsewhere,” said managing director Paul Jessop.
“The question I’ve put to the membership is whether they want the magazine to continue to consume much of their subscription fees or whether they want that money to be channeled solely for the library, which was in fact the reason behind the formation of the Friends of St Bride.”
Ultrabold, which is printed at Tonbridge, Kent-based Principal Colour on its six-colour Heidelberg XL 105, costs the organisation around £6,020 to produce two runs a year. The first run in 2005 was 800 copies, with 300 printed in the latest run. The title is free to Friends of St Bride and costs £7 for non-members.
A decision about whether Ultrabold will see it’s 19th issue will probably become clear in a couple of months, Jessop said.
“This is much bigger than Ultrabold, it’s about how the Friends of St Brides want to work going forward, and it will take a bit of time to have those conversations. If they want to keep it then we will have to look at different ways of producing it. It’s certainly not just going to be scrapped because it’s too expensive," he said.
Options could include increasing subscription fees or increasing advertising and sponsorships within the title, he added.
Jessop, who has recently been appointed managing director after initially taking on the interim role in April, said the organisation is set to make a surplus in 2016/2107 following a series of cost-cutting exercises, which resulted in the temporary closure of the library in July last year.
The library re-opened in April for one day a month, and Jessop said he wanted to up that to once weekly. "It’s not as simple as opening the doors though," he said.
"We need staff that really know and understand the collection and when you are running on a shoe-string as we are, that is hard because we essentially need to employ a full-time librarian and train them up. It’s something that is above and beyond what you can ask of a volunteer."
Jessop said he had reopened lapsed talks with the London Museum Development team with a view to securing nationally ‘designated’ status for the St Bride Library, which could bring greater protection for the collection and lend weight on funding applications.
“It will make a huge difference. It would put us formally on the radar and then it would be nice to make an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop a central, dedicated space for the library rather than the collection being spread across a number of rooms.
"The kind of dedicated space you would expect if you turned up to a national collection,” Jessop said.
