Launching and running a community-focused news title is a tough task. So what does it take to get one off the ground?
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Running an independent, public interest news outlet is a tough gig. It usually means that you have to work hard and on a small budget to cover council meetings, planning permission, bin collections or new businesses in the area, and hold local power to account. Support for the smallest local news publications is mounting as the digital economy clearly favours the bigger titles.
Social Spider is a community interest company based in London that runs five non-profit community newspapers in London boroughs. It started with Waltham Forest Echo in 2014 and other titles followed: Tottenham Community Press, Enfield Dispatch, EC1 Echo and Barnet Post.
In this week's podcast, we speak to David Floyd, managing director of Social Spider. He tells us about the real challenges of running and growing this type of independent news operation. That includes bootstrapping the organisation to the point of sustainability, finding and retaining talent, and being excluded from key revenue from the government.
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