IN nearly 40 years of pulling on a pair of rugby boots I didn’t ever play against Hawick. I hadn’t even been to the town until a visit this week to meet the publisher of a new weekly newspaper, the Hawick Paper.

For new visitors like me, Hawick’s High Street is a remarkably busy thoroughfare and, like so many regional towns distanced from the big cities, it retains a good selection of independent traders but is punctuated by the familiar sight of charity shops and a few empty units. Of the vacant premises, one was the old district office of the Selkirk-based Southern Reporter, widely regarded by such luminaries as Scotland rugby coach-to-be Gregor Townsend as the bible of the Borders.

Reflecting changing social and political times, the mighty but derelict Victorian-built Liberal Club has apparently just been sold for conversion to flats years after it finally closed its doors.

The Hawick Paper’s masthead is the same green as made famous by the town’s once-all-conquering rugby side and the presence of the game is everywhere. I popped into Grieves the butcher to buy an award-winning haggis and on the radio was an update about Scotland skipper Grieg Laidlaw’s gammy ankle.

It sparked an informed discussion about the game with Mr Grieve, the likes of which you don’t get in shops anywhere in Scotland outside the Borders. A few doors down is Jim Hay estate agents, which would be Jim Hay former Scotland hooker, and even people who know little of rugby will know this is the town of Bill McLaren and Stuart Hogg.

The success of the Hawick Paper and its competitor the Hawick News relies in large part on the vitality of the community they serve and they are fortunate their town retains a strong sense of identity reflected in the bustle of a main street in which most people know one another. Its confidence was symbolised by the unveiling of a wonderful group of statues to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Hawick children’s army which saw off English reivers at the Battle of Hornshole in 1514.

But it is also why the problems created for small business by the rates revaluation, despite the Scottish Government’s forthcoming relief measures, could be damaging beyond blunt economic statistics.

The laws of unintended consequences haunt political decisions, such as the well-meaning rates discounts for charities which often result in a total exemption and which are therefore an incentive for the owner to turn a shop unit over to a charity; or worse, to set up a charity which benefits very few people as a rates and tax avoidance dodge. A seemingly worthy scheme to exempt empty business premises from rates for 18 months has, in some instances, ended up encouraging owners to keep them unoccupied.

Both the Scottish and UK governments are finding out just how hard it is to tinker with business rates, especially when the economic landscape is so uncertain and every pound is counted by small businesses facing a constant battle to stay afloat.

Newspapers were traditionally regarded as an economic bellwether both locally and nationally because belt-tightening would be felt immediately in a drop-off in advertising. It happened in 2007-08 when property advertising dried up in the banking crash but it took a further two years for the full effect to be felt in property prices.

Publishers cannot rely on advertising alone for their futures and there is widespread recognition that the future lies in good quality, unique content for which people are prepared to pay. A new weekly paper has just been launched in Cambridge that could set new standards and Private Eye hitting a record 287,000 sale when its content is not available online must be instructive.

Publications like the Hawick Paper could have a bright future in great writing and reporting, but they need confident communities too.