Veteran national press freelance Rob McGibbon is launching a new local news title targeting one of the most affluent parts of the UK.
McGibbon has launched a Kickstarter campaign to get The Chelsea Citizen off the ground, mimicking the initial funding strategy of Tortoise Media which raised $710,000 this way in 2019. He hopes to hit his funding target of £60,000 in 20 days.
London is one of the most thinly covered parts of the UK for local news. Chelsea in west London has 38,000 residents, and average house prices in excess of £1m, but no dedicated local news source since the closure of the Kensington and Chelsea News in 2017.
McGibbon is a long-term resident of the area and became convinced of the need for a dedicated publication after becoming involved in local campaigns.
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In 2021 he launched a petition which helped force Transport for London to make safety improvements to Battersea Bridge after he witnessed the death of a jogger. And he is currently fighting against a proposed luxury tower block next to Battersea Bridge with a petition, which has garnered 4,800 signatures and support from high-profile local residents including Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Felicity Kendall.
McGibbon, who has freelanced for the national press since the 1980s specialising in celebrity interviews, said: “I totally believe in the importance of local journalism and I think there is huge potential in hyperlocal. I know the Chelsea area well and what makes it tick. It is my patch and I want to report on it more widely.
“There is a vacuum for local news here, yet it is a bustling community, as well as a magnet for business. It is also a massively popular destination district, so The Citizen’s content will be tailored to appeal to them as well as the locals.”
He said there are more than 4,000 businesses based in Chelsea which could support a new local title, including many of the world’s leading luxury brands.
McGibbon said he wants to create a local news brand which is different from sites where “a skeleton staff of journalists” are required to meet “impossible traffic targets to generate ad revenue”.
He said: “The cynical quest for eyeballs creates a startling disconnect with the very people these newspapers are meant to engage – the communities.”
The Chelsea Citizen will, he said, reimagine local news staples for the modern age: “From crime and golden weddings, to local council news and events, to announcements, such as births, deaths and marriages.”
He said he wants to bring back “warmth” to local media coverage and ensure his Chelsea community is “ultra-connected”.
Crowdfunding will be used to finance investment in a website and app and to commission freelance journalists.
Early funders will be rewarded by becoming founders of the new Chelsea Citizen.
Supporter levels range from £5 (described as “Typo”) to £8,000 for “Citizen Kane”. Top-level funders will receive a bundle of merchandise and a package of promotional support in the new title for their business.
Next year McGibbon said he will mark 30 years since he moved to Chelsea and 40 years since he began his journalism career at the Wimbledon News in south London.
He plans to fund the new site through a mixture of subscriptions, advertising and reader donations.
He said: “The key is to deliver great local content that creates a highly engaged readership. If you build it, the revenue will come.
“I vehemently believe that local press can help unite a community. People are jaded with and overwhelmed by the national and global media. It is a relentless deluge of bad news. Local news feels good because it can genuinely make a difference to your life.”
If the Chelsea Citizen is successful McGibbon plans to roll his Citizen template to other parts of the UK.
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