Welcome to The London Minute
The problem: local news is more fractured than ever
But local folks’ need to know hasn’t gone away. London has so many useful news sources. It’s just hard to keep up. Some outlets are professional and prolific. Others are run as hobbies, done anonymously and/or are a labour of love for local life. But staying across everything is tough, especially with certain problematic social media platforms making life harder. I’m not sure that billionaires or artificial intelligence should decide how much local news you get to see. So I’m volunteering to pick up the baton again as a curator. And you’re invited.
The solution:
The London Minute is free newsletter delivering you a list of links to local news stories in and around the city, daily at 7am. There’s a lot of good journalism happening in London, but it can be hard to find. The Minute solves that with today’s local news without the noise, clickbait or ads. It’s written by me, Michael MacLeod, a born Londoner who left the capital during the pandemic and now goes between London and Edinburgh (where I have written
for the past year). It aims to support local journalists and news sources by including links to their best work every day, and so far has sent them half a million site visits. Thanks to subscribers, it’s become my job, so I’ve got extra time on my hands and want to see if the same model can serve a need down here too.It will always be free unless you want to pay
I welcome paid subscriptions based on goodwill from anyone willing to support this model. I believe access to local news is important for democracy, so it will always be free unless you want to pay. I start at 5am every day to get the newsletter ready to send to you at 7am.
It’s also news you can use
Please keep in mind that London has far too much happening to fit everything into one daily newsletter, so I will miss things! I’m only human, but that’s also where I can add value and context that AI, aggregators and algorithms can’t. I’ll weed-out all of the rubbish from your local news. The Minute is my daily curation of what I find or receive from readers, hence the slogan: Almost everything’s in it, innit. If I miss anything that you’d like to share (local news, campaigns, events etc) then please get in touch here. As I’ve found in Edinburgh, the newsletter comes to life when people use the Community Noticeboard.
Thanks for reading and please share this newsletter with your friends.
Michael MacLeod
Founder and constant curator
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
