About Us

Serving local businesses

The Advertiser began publication in 1988, making it the longest established advertising publication in the Royal Wootton Bassett and Lyneham area. Every month, 9,000 copies of our free magazine are distributed to local homes and businesses across Royal Wootton Bassett, Lyneham, as well as the surrounding villages.

Buying local has always been a strong selling point of our magazine. It keeps the local economy thriving — and where better to source a service or supplier you need than on your doorstep? Through The Advertiser, readers get to know who is around to help them when they need a service and turn to.

That’s why many businesses have been loyal to our publication for a long time – some even from the date it started. Over 80% of the advertisers in our magazine promote their businesses with us regularly, with some placing ads every month.

Supporting the local community

The Advertiser plays an important role in the local community. The publication encompasses a host of local services and retailers in one compact, easy-to-navigate paper. Using our website, you can browse the latest issue online, read previous issues, submit your ads and more.

What’s more, our free listings of non-profit making events help many local organisations gain new members or run events successfully. Residents can advertise their private sale items and at the same time see what our wonderful traders and service providers have to offer.

Meeting challenges and thriving

The Advertiser is still thriving amidst modern online communication mediums such as social media sites and holding its own in the local advertising market place. That says a lot for any business in times of market change, pandemics, Brexit and rising costs of living.

During the pandemic, our loyal team of distribution agents continued to deliver in the hour a day exercise allowed by the government. We diversified, not only supplying door-to-door messages, but putting copies of the magazine into more pickup points in local shops that were allowed to stay open. Advertisers were still keen to trade and notify customers in ways they could trade, safety notices were placed by local government and opportunity arose to replace lost traders in the local marketplace. The Royal Wootton Bassett and Lyneham Advertiser adapted to the change and is here now to say, “we did it!”

36 years of continuous publication

It’s strange to think that when we started – way back in 1988 – the Berlin Wall was still standing, mobile phones were the size of house bricks and the world wide web didn’t exist!

Through all of those changes, The Advertiser has kept going and is still thriving. 2024 marks our 36th year of continuous publication.  In that time, we’ve produced well over 400 publications  – and we’ve never missed a month since starting! It’s an achievement we’re really proud of.

The Advertiser was founded by Mike Foley. Born and bred in Royal Wootton Bassett, Mike’s aim was to service and promote local businesses to local people. The initial distribution of a few thousand copies grew steadily over time. It’s a testament to Mike’s vision that many of today’s advertisers have continued to support the publication since its inception.

In December 2013, Mike handed the stewardship of this well-loved publication over to local business woman Sally Barker. Sally built on Mike’s work, expanding The Advertiser’s distribution, developing its pagination and design into full colour as well as making it available on-line.

Sally is dedicated to people buying locally where they can – local services for local people.

About Sally

Sally worked in the newspaper industry in the late 80s and has seen the publishing world evolve over the years. Her roles spanned advertising sales, project & business development management, and specialist publications and management. Changes in the newspaper world in the early 90s gave her the opportunity to become self-employed in marketing, graphic design and event management.

Sally’s design skills and experience in publishing have been advantageous in running this exciting publication. Having run her own graphics business for 20 years prior to buying the Advertiser, she understands the demands and issues her advertisers face in running their own businesses.

Royal Wootton Bassett, Lyneham and the villages have been her home for almost the same time that The Advertiser has been in existence, and though not born and bred here, she sees herself as a local.

“The Advertiser is not just a publication. It’s an opportunity to give something back to my community. I want local people to thrive in business as well as help local residents know who they can turn to when they need a service or product.

People like local. There’s a familiarity and sense of knowing the person you’ve contacted because they share their lives in the same area as you. Local knowledge, understanding and trust is foremost in the decision process when looking for a service.

Thank you to our valued advertisers, distribution agents, printer and web designers for getting us where we are today. Let’s continue to keep this magazine at the forefront of the local advertising marketplace!”

– Sally Barker