Three new jobs have been created as part of an independent publisher’s plan to launch in four new cities.

Manchester-based Mill Media has announced it has received an investment of £350,000 from supporters including Sir Mark Thompson, the former director general of the BBC and chief executive of the New York Times, who was this week named as the new chief executive of CNN.

Mill Media runs news websites the Manchester Mill, Liverpool Post and Sheffield Tribune, which are funded via a paid subscription model.

As a result of the investment, the company has now announced it is taking on a senior editor, based in Manchester, and a staff writer in Liverpool.

From left: Mill staff Jack Dulhanty, Joshi Herrmann, Dani Cole and Sophie Atkinson. Photo credit: Dani Cole

A commercial executive is also being recruited, while founder Joshi Herrmann has also stated his intention to launch new titles in cities including Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle.

Said Joshi: “I’m so thrilled that this investment means we can now hire more great journalists.

“It’s been three years of really hard work to get to this point, and in that time I’ve had so many messages from reporters who are interested in working with us.

“This injection of funding means that we can back journalists in more cities to do the kind of reporting we do. But it also means we can make a couple of more senior hires – a senior editor and a senior commercial hire, both of which we are now actively hunting for.”

Sir Mark added: “I’m backing The Mill because of the exceptional quality of its journalism and because it’s such an interesting and encouraging initiative.

“Britain’s cities need great commercially-sustainable journalism to inform the public and hold powerful institutions to account. That’s what The Mill and its sister publications were founded to do, and what they are consistently achieving.”