About Us

The BV – the digital Blackmore Vale magazine – sits in its own space between a free local newspaper and a glossy regional magazine. It has swiftly become a trusted powerful voice that covers in-depth community news and issues, combined with entertaining local expert columnists on all aspects of life in a modern rural community. You can of course subscribe to the BV so that it arrives automagically in your inbox every month, but it’s not ‘subscription-only’ – anyone can read it from anywhere at any time, it’s freely available to view.

The BV has swiftly become the local must-read for intelligent, easy-reading goodness – no tabloid headlines, simply reliable reporting on the most important North Dorset issues, and unstinting support for local independent small businesses and community causes. Alongside the insightful and in-depth local news & issues, we have a brilliant team of hugely experienced Dorset columnists, all of whom have had great success in the wider world. Whether you’re looking for farming, equestrian, art, wildlife, a rescue dog or local property market news, we’ve got you covered.

The BV is the natural, modern successor to the original Blackmore Vale Magazine – it’s a ‘glossy’ monthly digital magazine for North Dorset and beyond. We sit comfortably in our own niche; important local issues and news, along with contemporary rural living. Nationally-important art alongside farming, unique Dorset walks sit with wildlife and the Dorset forager, who leads naturally to the amazing local Dorset food & drink.
Not to mention the pages of jobs, property news and insider tips, business news, all in a glorious high res glossy magazine format with a strong high-end visual aesthetic.
Among our columnists are one of the top five wine merchants in the UK, the CEO of Dorset Chamber, a member of the Guild of Food Writers, a world-renowned Thoroughbred horse breeder, a rising national star in Three Day Eventing working out of an internationally-renowned olympic yard, a popular author with seemingly-limitless knowledge of local history – and regular contributions from the 23-years-editor of the original Blackmore Vale Magazine, Fanny Charles…

We don’t do print – we’re only digital, fully interactive and always free.

The BV magazine is published by Bluebean Publishing Ltd. We’re Laura & Courtenay Hitchcock, and we’re in Sturminster Newton, Dorset (give us a call if you want our postal address; we work from home, so we don’t advertise it for obvious reasons!).
We’re basically a two-man crew at BV towers, but sub-editors Fanny Charles & Gay Pirrie-Weir keep things straight (and grammatically correct), and a brilliant team of local freelance journalists work alongside the expert columnists to help make the magic happen every month.

The BV has never been printed, and is in no way connected to the similarly-titled newspaper which launched after us as a fortnightly-printed publication.

We’ve already written about how we started the Blackmore Vale magazine back in August 2020 on the blog – and if there’s anything else you need to know, come chat to us on Twitter or Facebook. Coffee’s at 11, and we’re always open to posh biscuits.

(that’s five of the six of us last Autumn – any parent of grown up children will know how increasingly difficult it is to get all of you in the same place at the same time for a family photograph!)

Limited Company Number 5092542

The Blackmore Vale             ISSN 2634-8810