Jim Waterson on founding London Centric: "You've got to have a bit of joy"

“What you can’t see is off screen, I’m literally nibbling on a piece of cheese to try and get me through the day. I mean, honestly, I have no shame anymore."

That cheesy soundbite comes from my interview with Jim Waterson who nowadays spends 80 hours a week growing the London Centric Substack newsletter, while juggling parental responsibilities.

Beneath his candour, self-deprecating humour and the snacks lies a sharp vision for what local journalism can be and a deep belief in the power of human stories.

Waterson was the political editor of Buzzfeed UK at the height of its virality. He then became the Guardian's media editor, where he covered digital journalism disruption, the shifting audience habits and a deeper appreciation for the power of a loyal homepage readership.

The human touch and a sense of humour

It wasn't until a round of voluntary redundancies loomed at the Guardian that he felt ready for a new challenge.

Buoyed by the success of the likes of Mill Media - who he had reported on - he saw a key market gap and untapped audience demand in the British capital.

And the final push came from a desire to be a truly independent voice, free of AI-generated content or the control of powerful, rich owners. Take it from someone who was called "a prick" by Lord Lebedev (owner of The Evening Standard and The Telegraph) when pressed on his Saudi ties.

"To be fair, I had put a camera in his face and asked him why he was being funded by the Saudis," he said about the incident.

London Centric sits as a middle ground between national newspapers' surface-level London coverage and hyperlocal borough reporting. All Waterson knew when he took the plunge is that he had six months' worth of cash in the bank. The rest, he says, he wanted to figure out along the way. 12 months later, he is sat on 3,900 paying subscribers - a figure exclusively reported by JournalismUK.

"Winging it is pushing it," he defends his approach.  "But I've not spent a penny on advertising or marketing. There is no customer acquisition strategy. There is no funnel. I don't know what I'm doing really in that regard. And it's all been ad hoc. It's just been working."

He started with his bread and butter: scoops and human stories. He traded reactionary news for light-hearted, hidden gems in the capital: phone thieves burying phones in flower beds; illegal behaviour on Westminster Bridge; foxes on the roof of Google’s London HQ.

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London CentricJim Waterson

"Journalism can be very pious and I believe in it so much, but you've got to have a bit of joy"

And he has often combined big stories with promotional offers - though, to his disappointment, Substack doesn't offer much freedom here. He favours trials as this gives the reader a chance to commit a little, but not the whole hog.

That story - a 4,000-word investigation into snail farming in Central London office blocks - converted 400 people into paid subscribers. His philosophy is kept simple: good journalism sells itself.

And people appear to be sticking around, too. Annual renewals have recently passed, and while Waterson did not know exact figures, he confirmed that top-line membership numbers have not drastically changed. Certainly not even close to the 33 per cent industry benchmark for annual subscription churn.

The analogue approach in digital times

The biggest difference between Waterson's heyday at BuzzFeed and now is the death of Twitter (since renamed X) as a source of referral traffic: "I'd be way ahead of where I am now if Twitter was still around – but it isn’t."

Platforms like Bluesky and LinkedIn have patched a hole, and he's had to adapt accordingly. His new approach is inspired by the best traditions of print journalism: accessibility, editorial variety, and community. And, of course, a dash of whimsy.

His equivalent to a walk-in newspaper office is putting his personal WhatsApp number in the articles. A move some might see as risky, but the story leads have flooded in. He credits a lot of his award-nominated work to reader tips: "You text it, my phone buzzes. I get dozens of texts a day just from members of the public."

His Substack newsletter in many ways is a digital equivalent of a newspaper stocked with splashes, NIBs (news in brief) and column inches. And his community feels part of a club - this week, he even hosts a celebratory, invite-only "boat party" for his readers.

"I have to fight for every reader and bring people in, but once you’ve got them on that newsletter, people say they trust me."

What also helps generate word of mouth is industry recognition, like being nominated for awards, or getting shout-outs on top podcasts like The Rest Is Entertainment.

The future: Still human, still surprising

Looking ahead, Waterson is open to change, thinking about audio and video. But there's understandable caution – he has been burned from scaling too fast with the way BuzzFeed invested in social media and saw the rug pulled from beneath it.

Substack, the platform of choice so far, is not a given mainstay. He's grown frustrated with product limitations and unimpressed with the way it rolled out in-app payments.

He is in a position to hire some of the top freelance talent in the country and start building a larger team of staffers. Perhaps for now, he can start to wind down the 80-hour weeks and give himself more than two days off at a time. But for now the core dream is still alive:

"My dream is that people rush down the pub or to their WhatsApp group and go: 'Oh my goodness, have you seen this?' – not because it’s some clickbaity thing but because they’re like: 'Oh, this explains everything. Oh, I get it now.'

"That’s the reaction that I want to have."