Dear readers — The Tribune is no longer a toddler! In fact, at just shy of five years old, the city’s independent source of in-depth, quality news is old enough to write some letters and hop on one foot. As you’d expect for a five year old's birthday, a big party is already in the works. The bouncy castle has been hired and the face painters have been booked. You’ll all get your invites in due course.
Don’t bother getting us any toys, though; the only present we want is your help for something really big we’ve got planned for later this year. The campaign we’re about to launch is going to be the biggest thing we’ve ever done. One very small part of it will be our first ever print edition, which will be available across the city (please keep an eye on our socials for sneak previews and, if you’re interested in stocking copies, please email us).
But the main event, and what we’re asking for your help to create, is a list of promises we can make to the city of Sheffield. We quite often report on structural problems in the city — misinformation, widening cultural divides, a lack of opportunities for young people — and now we’d like to do something to help.
Like most good ideas, it’s been tried before. We’ve been inspired by a campaign run last year by our Mancunian sister title The Mill, which was in turn inspired by the work of Denmark’s incredible online newspaper Zetland. The teams at the Mill and Zetland wrote a list of promises with the help of their readers — for example, pledging to give free subscriptions to first-time voters, to help them make an informed choice at the polls — which they would deliver if they reached an ambitious goal for new members.
Last year, the Mill set a goal of 1,000 new paying members — and they absolutely smashed it. In return, the city is going to benefit from six pledges selected by Mill readers, including special lessons for local school-children on how to recognise misinformation. If the people of Manchester could pull this off, then we know we can make it happen here too.
If we hit our target of adding 1,000 new paying members, we will fulfill a series of pledges to make Sheffield better. We’ve long listed about 30 potential pledges, and you can use this Google Form to look at them and rank the ones that you like the most. However, if you think of something that isn’t currently listed, there is also a box where you can send us your own pledge ideas, or you can discuss ideas in the comments. Once we have a final shortlist, we’ll be doing a major push to bring in new paying members so we can fulfill the pledges you chose for us.
Why are we doing this? Well, we want to grow, of course. We now have more than 3,000 members, which is amazing, but we don’t want to stop there. If we’re going to become the kind of newspaper Sheffield needs, we’re going to need a lot more than that. More members means more and bigger investigations, yes, but also more pieces which help you connect with this place we all share, and each other.
I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve managed to achieve so far (in fact, what we’ve managed to achieve, together). Growing from one person beavering away at his flat in Park Hill to a team of four in an office at the historic Leah’s Yard is more than I ever could have imagined when we started out. Our model is being replicated across the country — by our sister papers and plenty of others — and we truly believe high-quality local news makes cities like ours better places to live. We call out wrongdoing where it arises, help drum up support for organisations in need, and celebrate the positive work done by local people.
I get a vote too (which will count for just the same as yours). Personally, I’ve always been a big supporter of good news. So much news is by its nature bad things that have happened. But we know that there’s so much more to life than that. We know that people love living in Sheffield and if we are to reflect that, we need to focus on the good, as well as the bad.
So, a pledge to publish a monthly "good news edition", celebrating the unsung heroes of our city and shining a light on its brilliant people, organisations and businesses, would be my choice. What about you?
Please use the form to tell us which ones appeal to you — it’ll take less than five minutes.
Later this month we’re going to pull all the ideas together and come up with a list of pledges. Then we’ll start to explain to everyone who wants to take part how they can join in.
Dan Hayes
Founder, The Tribune
