A pub owner has launched a news website for north Staffordshire.

Matt Taylor, a journalism graduate from Staffordshire University, set up radicalpress.co.uk in a bid to rival local weekly and daily papers.

From his living room HQ, he sources and writes the majority of the stories and columns on the site as well as financing it through its fledgling months from income at the pub, in Hanley.

In the coming months, Matt is planning to approach major advertisers in the area such as estate agents in a bid to make the site financially self-sufficient.

He hopes to eventually expand its news reach to take in central Staffordshire and south Cheshire.

He told holdthefrontpage: "I did a three-year degree at Staffordshire University but didn't really want to work for a local paper.

"The site is a good thing and much needed in Staffordshire.

"The Sentinel has a monopoly on the press and we needed another source of news, not only an alternative but something independent that provides a source of debate."

Currently radicalpress.co.uk covers the city area of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

For stories Matt, also a former accountant, relies on his own contacts book built up through freelance work he did after finishing his degree last summer.

He also has regular volunteer contributors and has just signed up Stoke's first directly-elected mayor Mike Wolfe and well-known local historian Fred Hughes to write for the site.

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