What do we mean by independent?

Whether a publication is truly independent can be determined by several factors including its ownership, funding and editorial policies. Bristol24/7 is independent, but we rarely stop to explain what this means or why it’s important.

Who owns Bristol24/7? 

Bristol24/7 was set up in 2014 as a Community Interest Company (CIC) and is owned by a group of shareholders who wanted to invest in something good and to ensure that independent media could thrive in Bristol. As we are a CIC, we cannot be sold to a big organisation and the dividends that can be paid out to shareholders in the event of us making a profit are very limited.

We’re governed by a board of directors from a range of backgrounds, who hold us to account and offer advice and support when we need it. Our team of ten full time staff members are based at Future Leap, a carbon neutral co-working space on Gloucester Road. We’re one of few ‘local’ media companies that are actually based in Bristol!

Bristol24/7 are proud to work from a carbon-neural office

Who funds Bristol24/7?

Bristol24/7 is funded through advertisements, members and key partners. Sometimes, we also work with groups that sponsor specific roles, activities or publications.

Our aim is to make our income from membership equivalent to our income from advertising. As it stands, advertising brings in the lion’s share of our revenue, and membership makes up about 25 per cent. In the past few years we have also been fortunate to receive some funding to help us develop our website.

Advertising features in our magazine and website are always marked with the text ‘Sponsored’, and if they are on social media they are marked #ad.

We’ve been lucky recently to receive funding for our Climate & Sustainability Editor role from The Extra Mile. Publishers of The Extra Mile has no say in what our Climate & Sustainability Editor writes about.

What are our editorial policies?

Bristol24/7’s tradition of journalistic integrity and credibility is essential to our reputation. At the heart of Bristol24/7’s journalism is telling stories from across Bristol. We are committed to sharing voices from all of our city’s communities, shining a light on people whose voices might not otherwise be heard in civic discourse. Our full editorial policy can be found in the ‘About Us’ section of our website.

We keep our editorial and sales content separate, so that businesses advertising with us cannot influence editorial decisions. We guarantee that our editorial team is free to write whatever they see fit, as long as it is relevant to our audience.

As well as this, anyone who has something to say can write for Bristol24/7. We publish opinion pieces from communities all across Bristol and they are often among the most-read articles on our website.

Charlie Watts reporting on Paraorchestra parade in Knowle West – photo by Martin Booth

Why is independent media important?

The media industry has a huge amount of influence on our lives, our government, our choices and the way we think. Having a big platform and audience means having power, and therefore responsibility.

Sadly, some publications are owned by people with political allegiances or other business interests. Others accept money, or ‘gifts’, in exchange for publishing a certain type of content, or not publishing a story. In both cases, their coverage can be bought or influenced. This means that often governments, big businesses or individuals with money can end up influencing the public, with very little or no transparency around who or how.

Independent media is transparent, governed by a group of people with no political links and coverage cannot be bought. It means that the public has a voice that is trustworthy and a source of information that is less likely to be vulnerable to bias. In turn, this results in healthy, well-informed and well-connected communities who are engaged – which makes the world a better place!

How you can help

Because it is a CIC, Bristol24/7 can never be sold a big business or risk losing its independence. This is what makes us unique.

But running our publication isn’t cheap. Our biggest expense is staff costs – to pay the people who have written the articles on this site and in our magazine.

Staff costs make up 77% of Bristol24/7’s expenditure

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us by becoming a member. Supporter members pay £5 a month or £45 a year to be a part of our community, and we give them loads of perks such as free pints, free coffee and free doughnuts to say thank you. At the time of writing, we have 940 paying members supporting us. We’d love to get to 1000!

You can also become a member of our Better Business community through your work.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• Win brunch at Rick’s, tickets to El Dorado and more – June member perks
• ‘Local media can give a voice to grassroots environmental organisations’
• Bristol24/7 are hiring a Sales Executive/Account Manager

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: