The SubPostmaster: The Official Journal of Britain's Postmasters Since 1899
The SubPostmaster is the official journal of the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), the organisation that represents the men and women who run Britain's sub post offices. Few trade magazines anywhere can match its pedigree: the first edition appeared on 4 September 1899, and the magazine is still published today, more than 125 years later.
Now a bi-monthly magazine, The SubPostmaster carries news, practical support and advocacy coverage for postmasters, covering post office business, retailing and mails services. It is at once a members' magazine, a business advice service and the printed record of one of Britain's oldest trade bodies.
Overview
The magazine is published on behalf of the NFSP, whose headquarters are at Evelyn House in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. Issues combine federation news, interviews with Post Office directors, branch profiles, retail advice, member benefits and updates from the NFSP's negotiating work with Post Office Ltd, the company that runs the post office network.
Recent editions illustrate the mix. The April 2023 issue visited a post office in Cheadle benefiting from the federation's retail advice, interviewed Post Office non-executive directors Saf Ismail and Elliot Jacobs, and explained mails support payments. The April 2024 issue led on the difficulties of hard-to-place insurance for some branches, profiled a postmaster reopening a much-needed office, and looked ahead to the NFSP annual conference.
History and Founding
The magazine's story begins with the federation itself. On 19 April 1897, a group of up to ninety subpostmasters assembled at the Music Saloon in Wood Street, Wakefield, to consider forming a national association to improve the conditions under which subpostmasters laboured. The federation was formed, with Wakefield as its headquarters, and its first conference was held in Nottingham on 11 April 1898.
The first edition of The SubPostmaster, then a monthly newspaper, was published on 4 September 1899, with Joseph Ranns, the federation's founder and first national president, writing the inaugural article. The federation's headquarters moved to Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex in February 1947, and the magazine has chronicled the network's transformation ever since, from the age of the village counter to banking services, parcel hubs and the long aftermath of the Horizon scandal, on which the NFSP has given evidence to parliament and the public inquiry.
Publisher and Ownership
The SubPostmaster belongs to the NFSP and has been produced for the federation by a succession of publishing partners. In the early 2020s it was published by Lewis Business Media, the Uckfield-based business publisher, on the federation's behalf, with the copyright held accordingly and the NFSP retaining editorial direction through its members' editor and headquarters team.
That arrangement ended with a relaunch. The December 2024 issue announced that The SubPostmaster would relaunch in the new year with a refreshed content and design, a cleaner use of the NFSP brand identity and new sections and features. The federation parted company with Lewis Business Media, thanking its team for its work over the years, and appointed Treetop Design & Print as its new publisher, with the relaunched magazine debuting in the January/February issue.
Editorial Content and Sections
The magazine's sections reflect the dual life of a modern postmaster, who is both a Post Office agent and an independent retailer. News roundups cover Post Office announcements, remuneration and network changes; mails support features explain practical matters such as segregation incentive payments and how to qualify for them; and advocacy pages report how the federation is protecting postmasters' interests in negotiations and in public.
Retail content is equally prominent: branch features show how individual post offices have improved their shops, partner pages present offers from NFSP retail partners, and member benefits pages detail the latest offers from the NFSP+ scheme. Interviews with Post Office directors and senior figures, updates from the NFSP's Negotiating and Engagement Team, conference previews and dates for the diary complete a package aimed at helping members run better businesses while keeping them informed of federation business.
Audience and Circulation
The audience is the NFSP's membership: subpostmasters across the United Kingdom, the self-employed operators who run the great majority of the nation's post office branches, often combined with convenience stores and other local retail. Since 2016 the NFSP has charged subpostmasters no membership fee, funding its work instead through an annual grant and project funding from Post Office Ltd under a grant framework agreement introduced in 2015.
The federation maintains that this funding, while it enables practical support for members, does not prevent it challenging or criticising the Post Office, and the magazine is one of the main channels through which that support and scrutiny reach members. Distribution is to the membership rather than through newsstands, and digital editions are made available online, with issues readable as e-papers through the federation's communications channels.
Print and Digital Editions
The SubPostmaster began as a monthly newspaper in 1899 and remained a monthly publication for much of its life. In its modern form it is published bi-monthly, with combined issues such as January/February, March/April and May/June appearing through 2025 and into 2026.
Print copies go to members, and full digital editions are published as online e-papers, allowing postmasters to read the magazine on screen and the federation to share individual issues widely. The NFSP's annual plan has also treated the magazine as a work in progress, with objectives to review what members want from it and to use those lessons to refresh its content, layout and frequency, the process that led directly to the 2025 relaunch.
Notable Editors and Contributors
The magazine's first contributor was its most historic: Joseph Ranns, founder of the NFSP and its first national president, wrote the inaugural article in September 1899. In the modern era, the April 2023 masthead listed Jon Follenfant as members' editor, conducting the issue's interviews with Post Office directors, with production editing by Allan Norbury at Lewis Business Media.
Contributors to that period of the magazine included federation figures such as chief executive Calum Greenhow, alongside Ruth Buckley-Salmon, Wendy Burke, Amanda Cox, Terry Duffelen, Cassandra Hanlon, Simon King, Ciara Marshall, Helen Richardson, Amanda Pedley, Paul Simmonds and Elizabeth Vessey, a list that mixes NFSP staff, retail partners and specialists in mails and post office operations.
Awards and Recognition
The SubPostmaster's distinction is endurance rather than trophies. A members' magazine in continuous publication since 1899 is a rarity in British publishing, and its longevity mirrors that of the federation it serves, which has represented subpostmasters through the entire history of the modern post office network.
Within its pages, recognition flows the other way: the magazine celebrates members' achievements, from branches hitting customer-review milestones to postmasters honoured for community service, and reports the federation's own campaigning milestones. Its coverage of member stories, such as a postmaster rebuilding a branch's online reputation to thousands of positive reviews, functions as peer recognition inside the profession.
Recent Developments
The headline recent development is the relaunch that took effect with the January/February 2025 issue: new publisher in Treetop Design & Print, a freshened design built around the NFSP identity, and revised sections intended to deliver more relevant and timely content exclusively for postmasters. Bi-monthly issues have continued through 2025 and into 2026 under the new arrangement.
The magazine's context has also shifted around it. The NFSP, originally a trade union, lost that status in January 2014 and became a trade association in October 2016, changes the magazine has explained to members in detail. With a government consultation on the future of the Post Office running in 2025, conducted in partnership with postmaster representatives including the NFSP, The SubPostmaster remains what it was in 1899: the printed line between a national federation and the individual counters of Britain's post offices.
