A journalist couple are celebrating after 1,000 readers subscribed to the local news title they launched together.

Carly-May Kavanagh and Adam Englebright have announced the subscription milestone for the Brighton Seagull, which they have run since January 2022.

Editor-in-chief Carly-May and Adam, the site’s political editor, run the Seagull with Owen Baxter-Jones, who serves as the website’s deputy editor.

While free to read for all, the Seagull operates a subscription model with options increasing in £5 increments up to £15 a month.

The team produce three newsletters a week – a news briefing on Mondays, a long-read on Wednesdays and entertainment or events recommendations on Fridays.

Carly-May, pictured, previously studied politics and international relations at the University of Southampton, before achieving her National Council for the Training of Journalists’ Diploma in Journalism on the fast-track course at Brighton Journalist Works.

She then joined the Mid Sussex Times through the Community News Project – a partnership between the NCTJ, Facebook owner Meta and regional news publishers to support the coverage of underserved communities and improve the diversity of UK newsrooms.

As a community news reporter, Carly-May also studied for her National Qualification in Journalism with Bournemouth University.

After two years in the newsroom, she then moved on to be a policy casework officer for Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown.

Carly-May, 26, told the NCTJ : “We have had so many people tell us they didn’t read newspapers before, at all, and now they read The Brighton Seagull every time we publish.”

“We want to be approachable and friendly and not too serious and stuffy – although we have covered some incredibly serious stories that we are not going to be cracking jokes about – but we want to come across as approachable.”