150 editions in: What's next for The Edinburgh Guardian...
The free daily Edinburgh Minute newsletter is going so well that I've quit my job. Here's why and here are my plans
I’m using the occasion of The Edinburgh Guardian’s 150th edition to tell you a bit more about my plans for the newsletter(s), having now quit my full-time job to focus on this. That’s right, I quit a well-paid contract with Meta to write a newsletter. Leaving my job at Meta to do this was never my plan. But I keep hearing from readers that the daily Minute newsletter is a useful service that saves you time and is worth paying for. This isn’t my full-time job yet but it’s growing, so maybe one day.
Lots of tiny interactions have created a community of contributors to each morning’s Minute newsletter. Thank you to everyone who reads this newsletter, whether or not you pay. Thanks to those of you who contribute stories, links and events. You all make this thing and I just curate it.
📬 I’ve had some incredibly touching messages about how people feel more connected to the city, how it’s saved them hours they would’ve spent on social media and how it’s improved their mental health as a result. This gives me a stronger sense of purpose than I’ve had from any other job. I currently don’t earn anywhere near what I did in my day-job, but that’s fine because I want to give this my best shot and make it better. Waking up at 5am to curate it every morning before starting work at 9am felt like a bit of a silly idea 150 editions ago. So now that I’ll have more time dedicated to this, I will prepare things in advance, be more organised and give you some additional value with additional newsletters (more on that below). But the daily 7am Minute will always be free. The fact it has sent more than 120,000 people to local news sources blows my mind. That data tells me exactly what you want and I believe quitting my day-job gives me more time to make this thing even better.
💵 I’ve taken this leap of faith for a few reasons: I enjoy learning about where we live, it makes me appreciate Edinburgh people even more and I hear that it’s a useful newsletter. So as long as enough generous folks are willing to pay for subscriptions, that helps keep this free for everyone else. It’s a gamble for me financially, but I strongly believe local news needed a more modern model making it easier to keep up with all the things going on in and around the city, without having to get lost in problematic social media feeds or get bombarded by ads. I’m a big believer in trying to make tiny positive changes. The more we all care about where we live, get involved in local democracy and connect on shared interests, the better our lives can be. A little bit of civic pride can go a long way, right? I hope so anyway. I’ve no grand plans to go national or do this in other cities. I just want to help local people know the city better and reckon that can help make the city better. Even if it’s just a tiny bit, then it’s worth it. I won’t get too carried away though, as it’s just a newsletter.
📊 I recently asked you for your views on advertising and was genuinely surprised at the response. Most people who voted said they wouldn’t mind a wee ads section in the newsletter to help me fund this. But readers have also convinced me that the best option is to try to keep the daily newsletter free, funded by those who are willing to voluntarily pay for their subscription (£5/month). Some of that money goes to Substack, who host this, and some goes to Stripe which handles the money side. I get the rest and I pay myself as well as sponsor local events (like Soapbox <3).
Thanks to the nearly-300 people who pay, this is the model I’ll stick with. Committing to having no ads means I’m banking on the hope that you believe in a modern model for local news that makes life a little bit easier. And for those who can’t currently afford it, I’m also happy to offer you a free subscription for a month. Please just reply to this email with the word ‘FREEBEE’ in the subject and I’ll sort it, with no questions asked. All I ask is that you share the newsletter with a pal to help spread the word.
And if you don’t yet subscribe but can afford it, for less than the price of an Edinburgh festival beer, you can get a whole month of daily curated links to local news, culture, events and grassroots happenings that simply doesn’t exist in one place anywhere else. You’ll also get unlocked access to the full archive, the weekly Culture Minute and more exclusive original journalism. Most importantly, you’re helping to keep this newsletter alive and thriving into the future...
⏩ So what’s next? I’m going to launch some additional weekly newsletters for subscribers once August is out of the way. The topics will be based feedback I’ve heard while chatting to readers, from looking at what links you click on and reading your comments and replies. I’ve shared some ideas in the poll below. Please feel free to vote for those you’d read. Or suggest your own in the comments.
To explain:
New cafes, bars, restaurants etc: Needs a catchier name but basically a round-up of new openings in the city. I know a lot of you are into this in a big way!
Edinburgh Planning Minute: A summary of each week’s council planning docs (this is a chore I used to do as a job, and know it could be useful to some of you to have a human curate it so that you don’t have to wade through that infamous PDF).
Charity & voluntary sector heroes: Edinburgh has so many people involved in this sector, so I’d like to celebrate them and their work as well as curate local volunteering opportunities, jobs and fundraisers to get involved with. Could have a notice-board vibe.
Q&As with independent business owners: They make Edinburgh what it is, so let’s showcase them.
‘How we met’ stories: Local couples of all ages and walks of life talking about how they fell in love. A different couple each week.
🪩 The Edinburgh Culture Minute will continue weekly. This week’s is the 9th weekly edition and the Edinburgh Guardian’s 149th post, making Wednesday’s Minute number 150. The Culture Minute will continue even after the festivals. Curating it weekly has convinced me there’s enough happening locally all-year-round to justify it. Let’s find out! Again, it’s best when readers contribute links to local creative events, news, jobs, funding opportunities, networking events, exhibitions etc. So please keep those coming.
Your feedback really is appreciated, so please reply to the email or comment online if you want to chat about any of this. Thank you again for helping me take this step. I really appreciate your support and am genuinely buzzing to give it more time.
Happy subscriber here, and glad to hear that it's working for you too
Congratulations on taking the leap of faith to invest in this full time. I really hope it works, for you and for all the readers.