England’s second oldest hyperlocal news website has celebrated 20 years since it was founded.

Rochdale Online launched on 28 June 1998 and was registered as a company three years later.

Since 2001 the site has been funded via advertising revenue, but the site is also set to launch a voluntary membership scheme as another revenue raiser.

As well as news, the site features local information including jobs, properties, a business directory and a competitions page.

A companion lifestyle magazine, the quarterly Real Rochdale, was also launched at the end of May.

Pauline Journeaux, Rochdale Online managing director since 2001, said: “I would like to thank all the visitors to the site who have helped make Rochdale Online the success it is.

“Also thank you to the hundreds of advertisers who have made the website financially viable, and a special thank you to those local businesses who have advertised with us week in week out since those very early days.”

She added: “We are a genuinely local company, based in Rochdale town centre, employing local people, covering the patch in which they live and work giving the local community quality, in-depth news and information.

“The size of the readership and the trust the site engenders in the local community is something we are very proud of. Here is to another 20 years.”

Rochdale Online was the second hyperlocal site to launch in England, following London’s Se1 in May 1998.