A co-operative whose members include left-wing news website Novara Media is hoping to create a new model to fund independent media organisations, in place of “billionaires and the licence fee”.

The Media Fund has been set up by four journalists who crowdsourced £10,000 to get it off the ground. It officially launches next month and will rely on donations and charitable grants to sustain it.

To join, publishers must not be reliant on corporate or government funding, support the unionisation of their workforce and abide by the National Union of Journalists code of conduct.