Left-leaning news site Zeteo formally launched its UK edition on Monday three months after the publisher announced it would seek to replicate the success of Mehdi Hasan’s US operation in Britain.
Former ITV News political correspondent Shehab Khan was one of the big signings, joining as political editor for the Substack-based publication promising “independent and unfiltered journalism”.
Becky Gardiner joined as senior editor and comment editor from The Guardian where she was comment editor. Further hiring is still going on.
New roles being filled include producers, social media producers and another full-time writer. Khan said the team would be able to continue growing as more people subscribe.
Zeteo, which launched in April 2024 in the US where it has more than 50,000 paying subscribers, has already frequently appeared in Substack’s list of UK newsletters with the most paying subscribers.
On Monday lunchtime it was in 21st place on the bestsellers leaderboard, up from 36th at the end of June. It was also 34th on the “rising” list which ranks newsletters by their rate of paid subscriber growth and updates daily.
Zeteo UK costs £9 per month, or £60 per year. The original US edition is priced the same per month to UK users, or £65 per year. Subscribers can also pay £99 for a year of the US and UK bundle (which works out as £8.25 per month).
Shehab Khan says joining ‘growing’ news start-up was ‘breath of fresh air’
Zeteo content is mostly behind the paywall with free readers able to see the first few paragraphs of an article.
Speaking last week, Khan told Press Gazette Zeteo UK was at around 45,000 free and paying subscribers.
He said the interest in Zeteo UK before the official launch had been “unbelievable”.
Khan said he had in part joined Zeteo UK because in a “challenging period” for the media it was a “breath of fresh air being at an organisation which, week on week, month on month, is still growing because it’s starting out, it’s still new”.
He added: “Zeteo has only existed for a couple of years, and it energises you being at an organisation that is constantly trying to innovate and be new and is nimble and wants to do exciting new things”.
‘We are able to call things out’
Khan joined Zeteo UK after more than seven years as political correspondent and news presenter at ITV News. Before that he spent almost four years as a reporter at The Independent.
Of ITV News, he said: “I’d presented documentaries. I’d travelled around the world. I’d done war zones. I travelled on the prime minister’s plane. I’d done a lot in that seven years, and I can honestly say I had the best time and it was a wonderful place to work…
“But this opportunity came up to be part of something new and something exciting and something that is growing so much and so rapidly.”
Khan noted that “unlike the traditional broadcasters, which are confined by Ofcom and have to be impartial, we are able to call things out for what we believe in”.
Khan said of his time at ITV News: “From a personal perspective… I found the boundaries of impartiality quite tough. Towards the end of my time, there were certain things that were happening in British politics, there were certain things that were happening internationally, that I wasn’t able to say what I really thought.
“And I completely get it. I think impartial journalism is so important. I think it does an incredibly important job. I think it’s needed in our democracy. I think it’s needed in our media landscape. But there were certain moments where things would happen that I thought ‘I wish I could say what I really thought’.
“So the freedom at Zeteo to really say what you think and to call out things for what I believe they are was one of the reasons why I thought this was the right thing for me.”
For example, Khan said he was unable to say that he believed what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, although he said ITV News has done “amazing” work with its reporting of the conflict.
He also cited Conservative MP Robert Jenrick’s remarks about not seeing “another white face” during a visit to the Handsworth area of Birmingham last year. Khan said ITV News “did a brilliant job of holding him to account” in an interview but that he was frustrated that “because I was an ITV journalist, I couldn’t go on Twitter and say ‘this is outrageous. I cannot believe he said this. This is just wrong on so many levels.'”
At Zeteo, Khan said: “If we believe someone is being racist, we will say so. If we believe someone is a fascist, we will say so. We believe there’s a genocide going on in Gaza – we will say so. And I think there is a huge appetite from people who want hard-hitting and honest journalism that is done in a thoughtful way, and that’s what we do at Zeteo.”
Khan also noted that Zeteo is “purely funded by our subscribers so we are independent and we are able to do journalism in a slightly different way”.
Khan added that Zeteo UK is “not a breaking news outlet. Every single piece that we do is very thoughtful. A lot of time is spent on it… The feedback that we’ve got from people is they like that. They like those deeper dives into subjects, into topics, which have not been written in 10-15 minutes really quickly.”
‘We’re journalists – we’re not political activists’
At Zeteo UK, Khan will host a new show on the website and Youtube called The Real Question with Shehab Khan, which will feature interviews with senior figures in British politics or “interesting people in academia, or authors, or journalists”. Launch day saw the release of the first episode with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey. Free subscribers see a four-minute preview while paying subscribers get the full interview.
Former LBC presenter Sangita Myska will also have her own show, called “Sangita Meets…”
Khan said his show will likely come out two or three times a week but that online outlets like Zeteo UK can be more “flexible” and “nimble” when responding to breaking news stories.
Zeteo UK has also hired a roster of well-known weekly and fortnightly columnists including Owen Jones, Grace Blakely, Peter Oborne and Afua Hirsch.
The soft launch saw some written, video and social content being put out to give new subscribers an idea of content, which will now be ramped up. As of Monday lunchtime, Zeteo UK has reached 99,700 followers on Instagram, 54,300 on Tiktok and 33,800 followers on X.
Khan said there is “clearly” a gap in the UK market for what Zeteo does and described it as a “progressive news outlet”, although he said there is “no allegiance to any party whatsoever… No politicians write for us. We don’t back a political party in any way. We hold every single politician to account to the exact same level as anyone else… Everyone would be asked the difficult questions, and we would treat everyone fairly.”
Zeteo UK’s sold-out launch event at the Barbican in London on Monday night featured an interview by Khan and Hasan with Green Party leader Zack Polanski.
Khan added: “Our editorial stances are very clear. We are not particularly impressed with the growth of the far right in the United Kingdom and in the US… we don’t shy away from what we believe in, but that does not mean we go soft on anyone on the progressive side.
“A lot of the pieces we do are critical of the Labour Party. They are critical of the Green Party. They are critical of the Liberal Democrats. We hold people to account. We ask the difficult questions because we’re journalists at the end of the day. We’re not political activists. We’re not here to support any political party. We’re here to do our jobs and try and get the truth out.”
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