A new hyperlocal news site is to be launched for a North-West city because of what its publishers are calling the "failures of local journalism".

Called 'Inside the M60', it is the work of freelance journalists Nigel Barlow and Louise Bolotin and will cover news stories and events from Manchester and the surrounding area.

Nigel spent 20 years as an accountant before deciding upon a career change while Louise is a former editor of The Public Ledger and has contributed to a wide variety of publications including the Guardian and women's magazines.

The move follows the decision of publisher MEN Media last year to centralise its editorial operations in central Manchester.

Nigel told HTFP: "It isn't just going to be blog and we are looking at other platforms beside digital, but initially it will be on a hosted WordPress site.

"We aim to launch in time to cover the local and national elections in Manchester. It will use a range of income generation streams of which advertising will be one."

A Twitter feed is already active and Nigel has also posted a manifesto for the new site on his blog in which he says he and Louise have been working on the project for several months.

"Inside the M60 will be.....giving a voice to the opinions of the disenfranchised community," he wrote.

"Inside the M60 will fill a niche created by the failures of local journalism, taking advantage of the low entry and running costs of the today's media platforms and fully utilising the tools of modern journalism.

"It will address the issues of concern to the general population of the city, scrutinising the policies of local government and other public and private bodies within the city but also unafraid to tackle even the smallest issues that affect the population of Greater Manchester.

"As a result of cost-cutting measures, local papers have by nature become more insular, relying more and more on 'churnalism' and breaking that crucial relationship with their readership and their customers, the advertisers.

"There are, therefore, opportunities for niche journalism projects with a small cost base that take advantage of the low cost of entry and can act as the voice for these communities."

Last year MEN Media, parent company to the Manchester Evening News and around 20 sister weeklies covering Greater Manchester, centralised editorial functions in its Manchester city centre office.

And in January a quintet of former MEN Media colleagues announced they had teamed up to launch a series of free monthly titles on their former patches in Greater Manchester.

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