We started the Brixton
Blog because of a passion for Brixton. There's always been a lot going on
and we wanted to make sure you knew about it all. (The good and the bad!)
We've come a long way. In July 2012 we launched a printed newspaper and now print 10,000
copies a month - The Bugle has become a much-loved local news
source.
We’ve been influential in
supporting Brixton locals, whether through campaigns or their small businesses
and organisations. We helped save the Lambeth
Country Show from cancellation. We've given voice to protests
and issues like the proliferation of the big supermarket chains, or the
Ritzy Living Wage campaign, even improving the Brixton Rec.
Brixton is changing,
so it's all the more important we keep those who make the decisions about our
local area - from the council to housing developers - to account.
News is our bread and butter, but it's not the only thing we do. We cover the
arts, culture, sports, provide insightful features, check out the good and not
so good restaurants for you, and have even written a number of profiles on YOU
- the amazing people who make Brixton what it is.
And now we are asking for your help.
What We Need & What You Get
We want to raise £15,000 to pay a new experienced, part-time journalist and news editor to take our news coverage to the next level.
Up until now, we've just about scraped by, managing to cover news articles ourselves alongside full-time jobs,
and trying to pay co-editor Tim for some of his time editing the news (we haven't always succeed in doing that).
But our small ad revenue from the paper just about covers costs like printing, office space and more recently paying two people a few days a month just to keep us up to date with all the admin. We've also been missing some of the news that we really should have been onto.
As for the actual writing, sub-editing, and laying out of the paper, we’ve
always relied on an amazing team of volunteers. To make sure we continue to give Brixton it's only truly local paper, we need someone we can pay properly who can oversee our editorial, and dedicate real time to expanding the Brixton Blog and Bugle's coverage. The new news editor will also help train local aspiring journalists - something we'd like to be able to do even more of.
How you can help
We are asking you to help by making a contribution (on the right hand side). As a little thank you, you'll find some exciting Brixton-based rewards up for grabs, from guest-editing the Bugle to some limited edition artworks.
So THANKS! Whatever you can give will go a long way.
Some facts we’re quite proud of:
What else your contributions will help us do:
There's plenty more we'd like to do, like cover MORE council meetings, police and public events, shining a light on more deserving local groups and getting a bit more investigative than we are able to be right now. Ultimately, we want to upload 4-5 posts - including 2-3 topical news stories - each day.
Some FAQs
You have advertising
revenues in the paper. Why do you need to raise money through crowdfunding?
Our revenues are small. Some months we struggle to cover our
basic costs. And until now, we’ve tried to put some money aside to pay co-editor Tim, who writes and edits a lot of the content, a few days a week – but quite honestly, we’ve not managed to do
it. To grow the Brixton Blog and to make it sustainable, we can’t rely on
advertising alone.
How will the money actually be spent?
The news editor will work part-time. Of course, we want to pay them at least the London Living Wage. So (once you discount the crowdfunding fees), raising £15,000 will enable us to employ somebody, paying them a fair salary for their work.
What’s going to
change?
We’ll be giving more to the community, by covering more news,
and important events. The truth is that what we’ve done so far, relying upon the
goodwill of volunteer editors with a bit of spare time outside of their jobs and commitments, is not sustainable without having someone with the time and experience to pull it all together. With our growth comes responsibility.
What happens when the money runs out?
A good question. And as with most things, we've got to get our offering ship-shape before we can go to the next stage. That said, not having to chase the next £100 to make sure we can print the paper (we had a close shave in August, for example!), means that we'll be able to focus on building a more sustainable model so we can keep delivering your local news. We've got some stuff up our sleeve, and have even started to attract bigger advertisers from outside of Brixton. All brilliant, but of course none of it will happen over night. And it doesn't get news articles written. So watch this space. (And of course, if you have any fab ideas, do let us know.)
Other Ways You Can Help
We know that not everybody will be able to help financially. Tell you what though, a big shout-out in social media wouldn't go amiss for a start. So help us spread the word.
(You can do that through the Indiegogo share tools, and using Twitter, Facebook, all that stuff.)
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