Photo: Manchester Mill | Twitter
The local newsletter Manchester Mill is preparing to expand across the UK after being valued at £1.75m by investors, possibly to Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle. Joshi Herrmann, 34, started the Mill in 2020, initially with his own money and then funding from Substack. It has since launched spin-off editions in Liverpool and Sheffield, attracting more than 5,000 subscribers paying £7 a month for its mix of longform journalism and on-the-ground reporting. While Mill Media has just nine full-time staff members, some reporters from established outlets are keen to jump ship in order to do original journalism. Herrmann has raised £350,000 from a group of private investors in return for selling “less than 20%” of parent company Mill Media. Former BBC director general Mark Thompson said he was investing because “Britain’s cities need great commercially sustainable journalism to inform the public and hold powerful institutions to account”.
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