Back in the chilly days of January 2024 we planted our first edition of The Lead’s Local editions in inboxes in Blackpool.
Starting with just a handful of subscribers we’ve grown to become an award-winning agenda-setting network of local news titles with thousands of subscribers.
Today we’re pleased to tell you we’ve secured a share of the government’s Local News Fund to accelerate the independent local journalism we’re building in towns and communities primarily across the North of England.
And that’s, in a big part, thanks to your continued support as readers of The Lead.
From asking who killed the crabs in Teesside, which has gone on to become a feature-length documentary, to exposing the mistruths and misinformation of politicians in Lancashire,and exclusively revealing how many parking fines the enforcement vehicles of Merthyr council have dished out (spoiler: a lot). Each week we’re doing the vital, rigorous fact-checking work that’s needed to ensure communities have the kind of information they need to function and have informed debates.
In Lancashire, the Reform-led county council pushed hard to prevent us from publishing a report which showed all the risks involved with their decision to be the first UK local authority to withdraw from the refugee resettlement scheme. We published anyway – despite it being withheld from the public – because it highlighted the risks in a very politically-charged decision.
The Metropole, in Blackpool, was one of the more high-profile accommodation sites for asylum seekers in the UK and a site of almost constant protests before its closure this year. We worked with a whistleblower to make clear the hotel was closer to a prison than a holiday for those kept there, and regularly debunked myths circulating about who was staying there and how they arrived.
Now that work above has been recognised and we’ll be expanding what we do across our network of local correspondents rooted in the places we report on – thanks to a £102,648 boost from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s Local News Fund which is supporting 50 publishers and outlets across England and Wales to innovate and support new ways of telling local stories.
While the written word remains at our core, with our twice-a-week editions dropping into thousands of inboxes across Blackpool, Lancashire, Teesside, the South Wales Valleys, Southport, Stoke-on-Trent & North Staffordshire and Calderdale, we will be expanding how we approach social media and ensure beyond Substack our stories are being heard, watched and swiped through. We’ve in the process of recruiting for a Story Distribution Editor and Visual Storytelling Editor – who will be joining our team in the North West of England soon.
Since 2024 we’ve printed more than 350,000 editions of The Lead’s local titles, all as free newspapers, to help ensure communities are not left behind in the uptake of reading news digitally. There still remains something very special about a printed newspaper.
We’ll be taking The Knot, our title in Stoke-on-Trent, into print for the first time along with The Southport Lead too which will physically exist on the streets of the seaside town. New editions of The Blackpool Lead and The Lancashire Lead will also be printed.
And we’ll be connecting with readers directly too, hosting a series of live events to explore the big issues in Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool and Southport. Our first event, The Knot Presents; A City in Conversation – focused on the regeneration of Hanley, is taking place in early December. Sign up if you’re in and around Stoke or Staffordshire. We believe building connections in communities is vital alongside reporting on them.
Media Minister Ian Murray said: “For decades our local media has remained among the most trusted sources of news. But as the media landscape has become more complex, many outlets have been forced to reduce their numbers or even close. I am determined not to leave local journalism to collapse. This government knows it is critical to communities and fosters a self-confident nation that everyone feels part of.
“Through the Local News Fund we are taking action to help newsrooms innovate and adapt their business models for the online world, while incentivising and encouraging the production of high-quality, trustworthy news that Britain’s towns and villages deserve and rely on.”
Mike Harris, publisher of The Lead, said: “We’re delighted the government has chosen to back our work and we’ve been selected in the Local News Fund to ensure towns and parts of the country often ignored or overlooked by mainstream media are receiving our agenda-setting independent progressive journalism.”
Ribble Valley’s Labour MP, Maya Ellis, said: “Communities need local journalism to keep them informed and connected, to hold organisations to account on their behalf and to record the highs and the lows of life today.
“It’s really important that news comes from real people embedded in our communities to give readers a trusted voice, so I’m pleased The Lancashire Lead and associated titles has benefited from this investment to allow it to grow its offering.
“I look forward to seeing the impact of the Local News Fund in the extra services it will provide readers and the new jobs it will create.”
Leader of the ReformUK group at Blackpool Council, councillor Jim O’Neill, said: “I have always approached the media with a healthy degree of scepticism, particularly when it comes to political reporting. However, The Blackpool Lead has been something of a breath of fresh air. In my experience, they approach their work with journalistic integrity, without fear or favour, and are not afraid to hold anyone to account, regardless of their political affiliations. Frankly, that is what journalism used to be about.
“That does not mean I always agree with what they write, nor would I expect favourable coverage simply because I engage with them. What I do appreciate is the time, effort and research that clearly goes into their reporting.
“I am delighted that The Blackpool Lead has been successful in securing funding through the Local News Fund. Properly researched, independent local journalism matters, particularly in a town like Blackpool. I congratulate Luke and his team on their achievement and genuinely look forward to seeing them grow and build on what they have already established.”
Alongside the Local News Fund, editors and journalists for The Lead have also been involved in the Inspiring The Future campaign to encourage and explore careers in local media for youngsters with a pilot scheme in the North West of England. Luke Beardsworth and Michael Holmes of The Blackpool Lead recently spent time at Revoe Learning Academy, they spoke with years five and six about their combined experiences working as journalists and even set the kids a task to put a story together.
So thank you for your continued support, and reading, of The Lead Local. It has not been easy, but things rarely are – we believe there is a future for in-depth rigorous local journalism and we will continue on the path to finding it. And ensuring the communities we report on continue to have a trusted, reliable, source to turn to.
If you’d like to help us, think you know something we should know about or want to collaborate with us drop ed@thelead.uk a line.
And our next local editions will be in inboxes on Wednesday morning. We’d best go get writing!
Luke, Lauren, Sarah, Leigh, Jamie, Helen, Mike H, Zoe and Ed
We’ll be back in your inbox on Thursday with the latest edition of The Lead Untangles as we go inside the 10-year plan that Andy Burnham is drawing up, and our political editor Zoë Grünewald will be back in your inboxes later this week with her take too.
