An independent publisher says it has received an “incredible response” after launching a hyperlocal news magazine.

Clubhouse Media Group Ltd is planning to expand Washington Way, which was launched to serve the town of Washington, west of Sunderland.

Clubhouse was formed in December 2018 by Washington-born national journalist Zoë Burn, along with co-director and fellow journalist Aaron League.

Washington Way is printed every two months and is now set to increase its pagination from 32 to 48, following its launch in November 2019, while plans to recruit further staff have also been touted.

Zoë said: “I’ve never understood why a town as large as Washington has gone without its own news outlet for so long and after beginning my own career in local news almost 25 years ago, I felt the time was right to do something about it.

“The change in the way local newspapers operate today, with fewer journalists who are generally too busy to get out and about in the community, has been detrimental to the way local news is gathered and ultimately delivered.

“With this in mind, we still operate in the old school way. We spend a lot of time out and about in the town, meeting people and attending events, public meetings and openings and we have even hand delivered the first two editions to homes ourselves where we continue to meet people and learn more about what they want.”

Clubhouse was initially created to launch UK Clubsport, a paid-for monthly magazine which covers Britain’s motorcycle club and road racing scene.

But after that title’s launch last March, Zoë and Aaron began working on Washington Way.

The magazine contains local and community news and features focusing solely on Washington, along with an extensive what’s on guide and local clubs and groups listings section.

Clubhouse hopes to increase advertising revenue enough to print at least 25-30,000 copies per edition to cope with the demand in the coming months.

A news website has also been set up to run alongside the print magazine, and it is hoped to increase the team in the near future to grow the website.

Zoë added: “The reality is, not everyone uses social media to find their news and this became apparent the moment we launched Washington Way. Pick-up points were clearing hundreds of copies a day, and then calling us for more saying they couldn’t cope with the demand.

“We knew there was gap in the market for it, but even we didn’t anticipate the incredible response. The only negative feedback we have received is from people who have not received one, which is in fact a compliment and proof, if needed, that the demand is there.”