It's a wrap!
Indie News Week is over for the second year running - here's what happened!
You’re (unusually) receiving this newsletter on a Friday lunchtime as a one-off - it’s part of our coverage for this rather special Indie News Week.
This year we collaborated with the South West Durham News (who kindly hosted me in their newsroom) and we’ve had an exciting week hearing from people in this patch of County Durham.
We’ve been able to catch up with the campaigners trying to prevent a toxic waste incinerator being based in their community, we’ve heard about the launch of a new trail for cycling and walking, taken part in our first ever podcast, taken a market stall and joined readers for a nature walk. You can read more on those stories below.
Indie News Week is a national campaign which gives us local journalists an opportunity to meet with communities, showing them who’s behind their local independent news outlet and what goes into accurately covering our stories.
It’s hosted by The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF), the UK’s first charity to support public interest news – ethical and impartial journalism that informs and empowers the public about the things that matter to all of us.
The experience this year got me thinking, why do we only do these activities once a year? Maybe there’s other communities who would like to host us for a focussed series of events and coverage? If that’s you - please do get in touch!
As well as giving our readers more of an insight into what goes into our journalism, the week is also an important opportunity to raise funds to keep the news flowing.
Can you help us?
Sign the petition: Support local news providers to regenerate local news
We’re so encouraged to see how much our community of subscribers has grown over the last two years. This tells us that the news we produce is relevant to you and that you feel part of a supportive community. We always appreciate your feedback, which helps inform us where we need to focus more of our attention, and we also appreciate your ongoing support, without which we couldn’t continue to operate.
We’re slowly getting closer to becoming sustainable but we’re not there yet, so please tell anyone you think would benefit from this newsletter to give us a try – especially as we’re running a membership promotion this month which means they can get 20% off an annual subscription.
🙏 Thank you, as always, for supporting The Northern Eco 🙏
If you can help, The easiest way to do that would be by a paid subscription - that costs £4.99 a month - just 16p a day!
OR for this week, get the 20% discount on an annual subscription by clicking here.
Alternatively, if you’re not keen on subscriptions, you could simply make a one-off donation towards our fundraising goal of £1,140. Why £1,140? Well, I worked out that it costs at least £114 to produce each of the newsletters so having the next ten paid for would be a massive help! If you know anyone who could be tempted to part with a few quid, it would be great if you're able to pass this link on.
News from the week
Our nature walk at Ferryhill Carrs
Taking time out to enjoy a lunchtime nature walk! Students from local school Cleves Cross rambled through the woodland and were able to identify different birdsong as well as get to see the varied locations in the 16 acre site.
The new S&DR trail of discovery
The cycle and walking route features an interactive app designed by a team at Teesside University and will mean people accessing the trail can experience podcasts and augmented reality features.
That’s it for now! Have a great weekend and see you as usual on Tuesday.