The East End now has a newspaper to promote its attractions, shops and heritage to visitors and locals.

And the first edition of The St George’s Crown, a free publication, has proved to be popular, with many visitors taking copies back home as a vacation keepsake.

The full colour newspaper is a collection of articles about points of interest in the East End, with a focus on stores, activities and the history of the area.

Jarae Thompson, 26, is the man behind the publication. He studied graphic design and digital media at the University of Greenwich and London Metropolitan University in England.

After completing his degree course, he spent a further year working in London before returning to Bermuda.

In order to keep his résumé current while looking for a career opportunity, he embarked on the newspaper project.

The idea for such a publication had been floating around among retailers and businesses in St George, among them his mother Kelli Thompson, who owns Saltwater Jewellery Design on Water Street.

She said: “Some of the businesses came together because we felt we needed something like this.

“We all admired Dockyard, with its Dockyard Times, and we said why don’t we do something similar.”

Mr Thompson had the skills and the time to make it happen. A number of writers, including Berkeley Institute’s Kaila Harvey, and Suzanne Holshouser, supplied articles. The paper was edited by Emma Ingram, while Mr Thompson designed and laid out the publication’s 16 pages and also took many of the photographs.

“It took two weeks to put it together. I used Adobe InDesign software, and I looked at The Royal Gazette and a few other newspapers online to see what they did,” he said.

With articles highlighting stores, restaurants and other businesses in the town and surrounding area, The St George’s Crown aims to encouraging visitors and locals to check out what the East End has to offer.

Some 3,000 copies were printed in San Francisco and shipped back to Bermuda to be distributed at locations across the island, including shops, hotels and guesthouses.

The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive with many guesthouses calling up for more supplies as visitors have found the publication useful and something they want to keep.

Ms Thompson said people have been coming by the shop and saying the newspaper was the most informative and easiest to read of free, visitor-focused publications available on the island.

“It has been a fantastic start. So many people are happy that St George’s is coming back.”

He said the newspaper puts St George’s on a par with Dockyard.

The frequency of the publication is still to be determined. It may be twice-yearly, although Mr Thompson hopes it can be a quarterly newspaper, tying in with the seasons. Much will depend on the level of sponsorship and advertising it can attract.

Mr Thompson also does web design, animation, illustration and photography through his business Jarae Thompson Design.

Jarae Thompson can be contacted on 705-1714 and through the Facebook page Jarae Thompson Design.