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Editor-in-chief Seán Dagan Wood introduces issue 84, the first print edition of Positive News as a magazine

Editor-in-chief Seán Dagan Wood introduces issue 84, the first print edition of Positive News as a magazine

Maybe you saw a post on social media. Perhaps you’ve subscribed to Positive News since the day you picked it up in a cafe years ago. These might be the first of our words you’ve read. But something compelled you.

After more than 20 years as a newspaper, this first issue of Positive News as a magazine represents more than a fresh look. We wanted to create a news magazine that was not only uniquely informative and constructive, but beautiful too – in aesthetics, integrity and intention. Because something beautiful is happening.

As the world changes rapidly and digital connectivity keeps us everaware, its pressing narratives – such as extremism, climate change, and inequality – weigh heavily as they escalate. Meanwhile, we negotiate the sufferings and joys of our daily lives.

But other narratives are unfolding; compassionate responses, constructive voices and practical solutions. As we shine a light on these, the bigger picture shifts.

In the face of extremism, the women advocating human rights whose work we cover on the ground in Pakistan, are remarkable. Their courage shows there is nothing quite like the resilience of the human heart. Sometimes it lies dormant, but is always poised for awakening.

We wanted to create a news magazine that was not only uniquely informative and constructive, but beautiful too – in aesthetics, integrity and intention

And as we report on the growing ‘happiness movement’, feeling those twin journalistic traits of curiosity and scepticism, we find that happiness is bound up with circumstance but can be cultivated through our perception of and response to life.

In our feature on democracy in the digital age, we look into how technology is opening up routes for people to better influence how society is governed. And in one of our new regular sections, the constructive conversation, we debate whether our social and economic systems in fact need a complete redesign.

We turn also to the emerging idea of ‘rewilding’, applying it to people rather than the environment, to consider if trusting our own inherent natures might reset the compass for civilisation.

In the end, everything awaits renewal. Our livelihoods, laws and landscapes. Governments, economies and technologies. And media too.

In the pause since the previous issue, you came together to transform Positive News into an organisation owned by the people. We set the blueprint and you activated it.

Thank you for believing in this publication, its purpose and value, and acting on an impulse to support it. In turn, we offer you these stories and hope they open your minds and hearts.

Because the world needs more solutions

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