We’ve come a long way, baby
1,500 reasons to be confident about the future of journalism in Sheffield
Good morning readers — and happy Friday!
We hope you don’t mind us sending you an extra newsletter this week, but we have some joyful news for you. Yesterday, The Tribune got its 1,500th paying member, just over two years after we started our subscription service. Those two years haven’t always been easy, and I’ve had to work incredibly hard. But thanks to the amazing support you’ve shown us, we’re here to stay.
I distinctly remember the gloomy evening in January 2021 when I first discussed the idea of setting up a new publication in Sheffield with Joshi Herrmann, the editor of the Manchester Mill. I’d noticed what The Mill was doing with longform journalism a few months previously, and we’d chatted on the phone a few times already. But this was the moment that The Tribune was born.
That first meeting — held outdoors due to social distancing requirements — took place at a very anxious time. The second Covid lockdown had begun just days beforehand, and no one knew how long the world’s “new normal” was going to last. Just the idea of starting something brand new and me leaving a perfectly stable job to do it was a bit nerve wracking. Well, a lot nerve wracking, if I’m honest.
Because, at that point, the notion of getting even a few hundred members felt incredibly remote — in fact, we even talked about what we'd do if it didn't work out. So it’s absolutely unreal that The Tribune has now got 1,500 paying members and has established itself as the quality media outlet in not just the city but also in the region.
I’m the name most associated with The Tribune, but over the last two years in reality it’s been a team effort. As well as Joshi, the founder of The Mill, I also have an editor in Manchester called Sophie Atkinson. She’s the one who makes sure all our stories are as good as they can be and, yes, tells me when I need to go back out and get more material.
The staff at our sister titles in Manchester and Liverpool have also contributed some brilliant stories and we have a great team of freelancers who have written some of our best pieces, chief among them being David Bocking, whose writing for us on nature, the environment and active travel has been superb. Just recently, we’ve added Victoria Munro to the team, our second full time member of staff, whose stories have also added a new dimension to our output as well.
History is littered with examples of newspapers that don’t get off the ground — new things usually fail or just about survive. It's extremely rare they even become financially viable let alone culturally dominant in the space of two years. On a personal level I’m obviously really glad it worked out and I still have a job! But our success is actually much bigger than that — it means that Sheffield has a new title that can serve it for many years to come.
Now we’ve reached 1,500 members, do we rest on our laurels and stick with what we’ve got? I don’t want to — we’re ambitious for the future of journalism in this city. We want Sheffield to have what for many years it took for granted: political reporters and crime correspondents, theatre critics and restaurant reviewers. Of course, we couldn’t have done any of this without you. If you pay for a subscription, or root for what we do, I want to thank you. This is just the beginning — I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Many thanks,
Dan Hayes
Editor, The Tribune
It’s a great achievement Dan. Well done to you and all the team. Here’s to the next year !
Well done for getting this far! The hard work has paid off and I've learned a lot about my adopted city with some thought provoking reading 😊