A Substack-based local news service covering the Medway towns in Kent is celebrating four years covering local news and politics in the area.
Founders Ed Jennings and Steven Keevil told Press Gazette that Local Authority attracts around 45,000 monthly views, and has 4,000 newsletter subscribers (of which 500 pay around £6 a month for full access).
Jennings said: “We are very embedded in our community. We are at every event. We’re at every meeting. We are there – people know us.
“I’d like to think by now, they kind of trust us, and they know what we’re doing. We’re not some faceless news organisation that’s just kind of rolled in…most of our readers have probably met us at some point, we are in the same community as them.”
Jennings also notes the publication’s writing style. Rather than “just a factual output”, he believes there must be “context and analysis” behind every piece.
He and Keevil are “happy to give a slight kick to the establishment” when needed, but equally “when councils are doing good things, we will happily highlight that. But if something silly is happening, we’re going to call it silly.”
The news service began as a “lockdown side project, more than anything” in 2021. Jennings’ interest in local affairs led him to start writing a newsletter to provide in-depth reporting.
He was inspired by titles like The Mill in Manchester, questioning whether this “could this work in my weird little town rather than a big city?”
His coverage of local events and council meetings “spiralled pretty quickly” attracting a reasonable amount of attention early on.
After the first year, Keevil joined the team, and now others also contribute to the publication. Jennings edits all the articles, writing the main news briefing of political affairs, whilst Keevil covers long-form interviews and news relating to arts and culture.
For Jennings, the community events run by Local Authority are a particular highlight of the last four years. During election periods “we do a full election debate with candidates, and we get hundreds of people turn up to them, which is quite remarkable from our point of view.”
Jennings and Keevil have also been “welcomed into part of the media ecosystem which has been kind of a big thing for us. We’re welcome at council meetings, election councils… it’s great. We’ve won awards for what we do.”
The Kent Press & Broadcast Awards have recognised Local Authority several times over the last three years. In 2023, it won Kent News Website of the Year. The awards have lent the publication “a bit of extra credibility” in journalistic spaces.
Jennings recognises that “the big push is trying to grow readership” which is really about awareness raising: “Half the time it is just getting people to be aware of it in the first place, which is half the battle.”
In April, Jennings and Keevil launched Kent Current, a second Substack-based newsletter providing in-depth reports looking at the whole county. It comes in response to an evolution and reorganisation of county-wide politics in Kent.
“We wanted to be in the room when Kent started getting this evolved thing. We wanted to be part of the coverage,” Jennings said.
At present Jennings divides his time between Local Authority and other work. Having gradually reduced his other projects over the years, he anticipates that in the next year or so he will be able to work on his publications full-time.
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