A former regional and national press journalist has launched a new website covering his old patch.

Chris Brown took voluntary redundancy from his role as deputy backbench editor with the Bristol-based Western Daily Press in April as part of a shake-up of subbing operations.

His new project Bristol24-7.com went live yesterday with Chris hoping it will become the "first port of call" for both visitors and Bristolians wanting to keep abreast of news and events in the south-west city.

He told HTFP: "The plan is to be a newspaper made for the internet with the eventual aim of being the first port of call for anybody wanting to know what's going on in the city.

"I am going to doing my own original stuff and I have a few people saying they're going to me out help as well. I'm going to start small and take it a step at a time.

"The site is all my own work. I'm not a top notch web designer but it's possible to come up with a professional looking site just using some of the tools that are freely available out there."

Bristol 24-7 is offering the staples which readers should normally find in their local paper such as court coverage, What's On, sport, education and business news.

The 35-year-old will be initially financing the site through other work he is doing to help businesses improve their own digital marketing strategies.

He says he first came up with the idea for the site three years ago and finalised his business model before Christmas.

Chris started his journalism career with The Independent in 1998 and joined the Western Daily Press in 2002 where he remained until this spring.