Thursday November 28th 2024
Midlothian View's first article in November 2018.
Written by Midlothian View Editor, Phil Bowen
Today it is ten years since the first Midlothian View news article was published. Since then a lot of virtual ink has flowed as we have reported on news and views across Midlothian.
That first article announced the result of the Midlothian East by-election result when Labour’s Kenny Young was elected to the council.
Sheriffhall was one of our first major ‘scoops’ in 2015 when we reported that there were concerns over the delays to the decision to build a flyover. Almost ten years and a whopping 64 Sheriffhall articles later there are still concerns on the delays.
The council budget continues to be an annual article as whichever incumbent party struggles to match the demands with the available funds.
Planning and development have always dominated the stories we report on and I suspect they will continue to be as Midlothian continues to be Scotland’s fastest growing county.
So who is in the Midlothian View team and how did it start?
Back in 2014 I also started my web and app development business, Pigeon Penguin, with the aim to build websites and apps for local businesses in Midlothian.
However, before I could get someone to buy a website from me I needed to prove to them that I could build one. Hence, I came up with the idea of building a website to give people a view of what is happening in Midlothian and also a chance to have their view. And so MidlothianView.com was born.
In those early days I produced about 3 articles a week but slowly interest grew, I joined Twitter and Facebook and interest grew more. Then a good friend suggested I contact our local MSP to see if he would contribute. Not expecting a reply I was shocked to get one an hour later. That was the start of regular monthly columns from politicians of every party.
It was in those early days that I decided that Midlothian View would be politically neutral and would allow all parties to make their case to readers, and for readers to come to their own conclusions. We still closely guard this principal. Over the years we have been accused of being biased towards every party which I think proves that we are biased towards none and we are achieving our politically neutral principal.
In 2018 Midlothian View was invited to apply to join the newly created BBC Local Democracy Report Service (LDRS). Not many people know but as part of its charter the BBC must support local journalism and so through the LDRS the BBC fund one reporter in every council area in the UK. We were successful in our application.
LDR reporters are assigned to a parent news organisation and their role is to report on all council news including meetings. However, the articles they then produce are shared with all local LDR members which includes Midlothian View.
Slightly typically, Midlothian is considered too small and so we share our LDR reporter, Marie Sharp, with East Lothian. Midlothian View also receives LDR articles for the surrounding councils, East Lothian, West Lothian, Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders. Marie and her LDR colleagues always produce good quality and in-depth articles which Midlothian View readers find very informative. It is always interesting to read the subsequent discussion on Facebook and Twitter about these articles. Without the BBC LDRS then a lot of residents would be none the wiser as to what is happening in Midlothian and surrounding counties.
Also in 2018 Midlothian View was invited to join the Independent Community News Network (ICNN). This is an organisation run by Cardiff University and setup to support and promote small independent news outlets, such as Midlothian View. Having worked alone for four years it was great to find out that there were over a 100 plus similar Hyperlocals, as we are known, across the UK.
Hyperlocals account for millions of news page views every day. Collectively we add up to a very significant media output which is similar to the mainstream national media titles.
The ICNN is doing a great job continuing to fight for the recognition, funding and advertising revenue that hyperlocals deserve. In an age of misinformation on social media, click bait and the demise of the established local news titles then hyperlocals are a beacon of hope for the future of local journalism. Our operating models are much, much leaner and with modern technology we can do so much more to get our news stories reported.
On the subject of click bait, it was another early decision in 2014 that Midlothian View would present the news in a clear, uncluttered and easy to read form. Unlike other online news websites we do not do click bait, we do not have over 40 adverts in one article but instead we allow the reader to read.
But we do carry advertising and we do this for two reasons. One we want to support and promote local businesses and two we do need the revenue from advertising to fund what we do. Earning sufficient revenue to keep going is a constant concern for all hyperlocals.
We used to carry Google AdSense advertising, which is Google’s syndicated advertising network which enables large organisations to advertise on thousands on websites across the world. We got a moderate amount of income from AdSense but I have always been concerned that AdSense promotes multi-nationals rather than local business. Therefore, in the summer of this year we decided to withdraw from the AdSense network and instead concentrate on local advertising. It is a bit of a gamble but I think it is the right one.
If there are any local businesses reading this then please consider advertising with us and reaching our 35,000+ readers per month. You will not only get great returns from your advertising, you will also be seen as supporting Midlothian View which will be appreciated by our readers.
Yes that is right, Midlothian View is read by over 35,000 readers per month. Reader numbers have grown year on year and still continue to grow.
As well as the LDR articles Midlothian View publishes multiple articles a day. The source of these articles varies. A lot come from information provided by local businesses, charities and the council. We of course do our own reporting and in the last two years we have looked to give real world reporting opportunities to student reporters with a tie up with Napier University’s journalism course. These talented journalists have produced some very interesting articles for Midlothian View. This has helped Midlothian View but has also allowed them to build up a good portfolio of articles that they can show future employers.
So Midlothian View has come a long way in ten years. We are now an established go to source of news for Midlothian and its surrounding counties. I think this was demonstrated in the summer when we were able to organise and sponsor the General Election hustings, which would not have gone ahead without Midlothian View. So we are contributing a lot to the news and views landscape.
What does the next ten years hold?
We want to grow, grow and grow. We want to report on the stories that matter. There are a lot of stories that just go unreported as we do not have either the bandwidth or the finance. There are a lot of people and organisations struggling in Midlothian because they do not have the ability to tell their story. There are a lot of decisions made without the people of Midlothian knowing that they are up for discussion. We want to change all of this.
Midlothian View in the next ten years could grow into something really big and become an even more useful resource for all the people of Midlothian.
If you would like to help us towards that aim then please do consider supporting us. Just for the price of a cup of coffee every month you will make a difference for us. Please support us by clicking HERE.
I would love to be able to fund a full-time reporter, one of those Napier University journalism students would be ideal for Midlothian View.
Celebrate with the new MV App.
To celebrate our tenth anniversary we have launched the Midlothian View app, which has been built by my company Pigeon Penguin. It is hoped that the MV app will build further on our audience and their interaction.
The MV app will present the news in an easy to use and clear format. It will also help readers and support local businesses by providing an easy to search local business directory, enable businesses to display their latest offers and by partnering with Loyalty Pigeon enable businesses to run a loyalty programme.
You can download the MV app for free today at either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store,
And finally a great big thank you to you our readers. Thank you for reading our articles, providing comments and promoting what we do. Your reaction to the articles we write makes it all worthwhile.
I really have enjoyed the first ten years with Midlothian View and I am looking forward to the next ten.
Many thanks
Phil Bowen
Editor, Midlothian View.
To download the MV app onto your device click the appropriate button below.
