A new bi-monthly title has pledged to “hold power to account and give a voice to people” in the city in which it was founded.
The Bristol Cable has been set up as a media co-operative, publishing both in print and online, which will also hold live debates and media training events as part of its operation.
The Cable was established after founder members received a £1,500 grant from Co-operatives UK, followed by a further £3,300 raised between more than 100 supporters.
While none of those involved in the project have a background in the regional press, the founders put on 35 hours of free media workshops attended by more than 300 people ahead of its launch this month.
Alon Aviram, Cable co-founder and a content coordinator, said: “In summer 2013 a few of us came up with the idea to try and create a co-operatively owned and produced paper that was prepared and able to hold power to account and give a voice to people across the city.
“There are plenty of issues that are not being investigated on a city level, from local workplaces to schools and City Council.
“As local media outlets fold and staff get cut, we’re increasingly seeing those remaining publishing solely lifestyle and culture reviews in a bid to attract advertising or just simply recycling press releases.
“In light of this, The Bristol Cable is committed to looking into issues behind the daily news in multimedia, from local investigations to histories and live debates.”
To fund the title, which is distributed for free, the Cable is aiming to generate advertising revenue as well as offering a £1 per month membership scheme, with members being given a say in how the paper is run.
In 2011 a series of new hyperlocal titles were launched across the city and surrounding area by former Bristol Post assistant editor Richard Coulter.
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A voice to the people? JP got there first with their wonderful no cost User Generated Copy “empowering” readers (or conning them depending how naive you might be). Good luck to any new venture. At least it is some positive news. JP NQ TM got any?
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I do think these things can work, but they have to be very small operations (very few people involved). The money isn’t there to sustain even small staffing levels.
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Less than £5,000 for start-up capital? No press background? Won’t be going into print any time soon, then. It could be a very valuable project, but without professional knowhow, which has to be paid for (journalists get hungry too) it won’t get anywhere … it will just end up as an amateur website run from somebody’s bedroom.
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I’m normally grumbling in the comments section but… Love the idea, love the look of that front page, and the website is fantastic. I hope this works. Most of all I hope it pays those working on it, and has the ability to expand. If you are good at reporting, and not in a pandering press releasy soft on the ears way, you deserve to be working, and not necessarily for the big machines of TM, JP and NQ.
This model could roll out across the country’s regions, as an alternative to the mass produced propaganda of big title press-release peddlers. Rather than a page lead on ‘council approve regeneration project’ with quotes from the council, this could delve into the businesses affected in the area. Who are the businesses hoping to start up here, and what is life like in the shops around the proposed site. Something your battery-hen reporter cannot devote the time to anymore.
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Did he say: “to try and create a co-operatively owned…”
It’s ‘to try to’.
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Not clear from the article, but the first print edition of this hit the street a few weeks ago, so some of the comments are unduly pessimistic (GladImOutOfIt, I’m looking at you here…).
I was a bit underwhelmed – design a bit ‘sixth form project’ and writing style often straying into Dave Spart parody – but a welcome addition to the city’s thriving media sector. Certainly tackling issues that the traditional regional press doesn’t (and perhaps hasn’t) covered.
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Instead of moaning, UK journalists should be campaigning for a statutory corporation to run what’s left of the UK regional dailies in the interests of democracy.
It could operate on similar lines to the BBC and perhaps include Royal Charter provisions to gain support of the ultra-conservative among media workers.
The BBC is far from perfect, but you will never find a media outlet that is completely impartial.
The alternative is to see newspaper monopolies under the control of foreign capital destroy free speech and local communities. Week after week in HTFP media chief executives press for Kremlin style centralisation. This has destroyed the individualism of newspapers and shackles journalists.
Most media people are scared stiff of speaking out, losing their jobs,
and being blacklisted by the industry…and this in a country that is always preaching democracy to the world!
The Bristol Cable deserves to succeed, but anybody who has spent five minutes working in newspapers knows it will only last as long as the free money is forthcoming.
Publications need professionals, and the only way to do that is to empower journalists.
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