Closing the gap

One third down, two thirds to go. We’re now on 178 pledging legends. We still need to get many more people on board, but it’s amazing progress. We'd love to smash 200, or maybe even 250 (!) by the end of the week.

We’ve seen some really lovely posts out there, such as this from local TV scriptwriter, David Allison:

We also had a very kind offer from someone who said he couldn’t afford to pledge due to being out of work, but he would come and wash the windows in our office gratis. Finding an office is so far down my to-do list it’s barely even there, but if we hit 500 we’ll need to sort it pretty sharpish, so I’m keen for any recommendations. We like characterful, cheap places and are very happy to ditch the unnecessary gimmicks.

This week I’ve been out and about reporting, as well as meeting lots of local writers. I’ve strolled along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, I’ve sampled several Leeds cafes, and I’ve ridden the new “Yorkshire Flyer” service (a Northern Rail train from Leeds to Sheffield that mercifully doesn’t stop at every hamlet in between). I’ll be in Bradford at some point next week — let me know if you’d like a catch up.

Time, however, is not on our side. When we said we needed to reach 500 in a month, we hadn’t clocked that February is actually the cruellest month: it’s only 28 days long. That means we’re almost one week down, with just three left to go. 16th March is deadline day, and it’s coming at us faster than the Yorkshire Flyer.

We’ve had a big boost at the start, but there’s a risk it starts to tail off. Thank you so much for spreading the word — please keep it up. We’re hearing lots of stories of people hearing about us from friends, and that means the world.

At this point I’d love to hear more about you, as one of our early backers. How do you fill your days? Why did you decide to pledge? What do you want to read about? You can e-mail me here. (I’m on annual leave today, but I’ll get back to you next week.)

Something you should know about me is that I got into journalism by a slightly strange route: data. I’m a firm believer that maps are one of the best ways to understand your local area, and spend my life in the quest for the perfect stat. 

So when I was offered a free poll… well, I couldn’t refuse. We’d just been at the British Journalism Awards where a few of our journalists had been shortlisted and my colleague Mollie Simpson took home the local journalism prize. The polling company FindOutNow were sponsors and asked if we wanted any questions answered, on the house.

It was a couple of months ago, when we were mulling over whether to try to launch here. So I tasked them with asking 1,000 residents in West Yorkshire two questions. 1) How much do they care about what happens in their local area? And 2) how much do they know about it?

The results are stark, and I believe they show exactly why we need more local news here.

Look at the first bar. When we asked people to score 1-5 about how much they care about local goings on, over three quarters gave a 4 or a 5 (red on the chart). We’ve been told before that local news doesn’t work any more because people have stopped caring about what happens in their neck of the woods. We’ve never believed that, but it’s nice to see it in the data.

But when we asked how much people know about what’s happening in their area (second bar) things looked very different. Only 35% gave themselves a 4 or 5 on that metric; only one in ten were prepared to say they knew a great deal.

This is West Yorkshire’s local news gap. People crave something – local information – but they’re not getting enough of it. Into that vacuum have sprung plenty of local facebook groups, but in these environments rumours spread quickly and verified facts are thin on the ground.

Closing that gap will be a mammoth team effort, and we’re going to start very small. But thank you for believing in us, and what we’re trying to do here. We’re picking up lots of story ideas and we’re raring to go. But first, we need to close another gap, and find 322 more supporters.

With deepest thanks,

Daniel