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.

Comments

Lauriña (29/05/2008 12:36:25)
There’s definetely a monopoly on the news in this area and people rely on it as if it was a Bible. I can only say that unbiased, independent and objective approaches to news like this website are welcome and necessary.

Anne Evans (29/05/2008 16:07:46)
I was delighted to note that he has also elicited the support of astrologer, Jill Wood. Jill is fabulous, I cannot commend her highly enough.

Emma (29/05/2008 22:22:32)
In response to Laurina’s comment The Sentinel is a Bible. No website like this will ever compete with The Sentinel. People in Stoke are The Sentinel and vice versa. But good luck to Matt anyway.

Ben Toone (30/05/2008 09:49:35)
There is a similar venture in North Yorkshire- on an online radio/ magazine called Radio Ryedale.

Clare (05/06/2008 20:15:20)
People in Stoke are not the Sentinel, what a poorly-thought-out thing to say. There are different news sources emerging, including my own social enterprise paper which is about to reach its first birthday, and a lot more community websites starting up. It is great to see Stoke starting to develop a diverse media scene, thanks in part to the excellent journalism training being done at Staffs.

Fred Hughes (06/06/2008 18:59:46)
Just for the record. While I wish Matt all good success it is misleading – in fact wrong – to say I’ve ‘signed-up’ ‘to write for the site’.