The Manchester Mill has added some 272 paid subscribers in just a week after reporting allegations against local businessman Sacha Lord.
If all the new subscribers stay for a year they are worth nearly £24,000 in annual revenue for the Substack-based local news outlet.
Mill editor Joshi Herrmann tweeted that Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s friend, Sacha Lord, had suspended a defamation action against The Mill for publishing a story a week ago that claimed Lord’s company, Primary Event Solutions, applied for and received £401,928 from the Arts Council’s pandemic recovery fund even though it had no history of staging artistic events. That story has been read more than 75,000 times
The Mill now has 3,200 subscribers and Mill Media has 8,000 in total across its network of titles.
Lord’s lawyers initially sent a pre-action letter to The Mill demanding that the story be taken down and replaced with an apology, and that his legal costs be paid.
“The words published by you in the publications meant and were understood to mean that our client is dishonest and has engaged in the criminal offence of fraud by obtaining over £400,000 taxpayers’ money on a fraudulent basis… These allegations are defamatory as they have caused, and are likely to cause, serious harm to our client’s reputation,” the letter said, according to a copy seen by Press Gazette.
However, on Wednesday, the Arts Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority both said they would re-examine how Lord’s company got the money, and what he did with it.
In light of that, Lord sent a new letter to The Mill saying that he would back off — for now — while the two government agencies investigate.
“I have decided not to pursue legal action for the time being, but will review this position on an ongoing basis,” Lord said in the letter.
“I believe legal proceedings would be a major distraction from my work and family life and I also do not wish to stifle The Mill’s freedom of expression even though — in this instance — I reject their allegations in the strongest terms.”
The Mill appealed to its readers for information about the Arts Council funding application.
In the meantime, The Mill’s staff want to know how the mayor’s friend and official “Night Time Economy Adviser” received the Arts Council funding. The Mill’s source on the story — a former director of the company in question — first alleged to the Arts Council in 2022 that the funding was questionable, but the council did nothing about it, Herrmann says.
Lord has a national-level profile because, with other companies, he created the Parklife festival and The Warehouse Project series of nightclub events. He also made media appearances during the Covid lockdown arguing for more money to be granted to support arts organisations.
Lord’s solicitors did not respond to a request for comment from Press Gazette.
“We don’t know what Andy Burnham knew,” Herrmann told Press Gazette. “The two men are friends. I would say if I got £400,000 in funding from the government I would probably tell my friends.”
However, a spokesperson for Andy Burnham told Press Gazette: “I’ve checked for you and the mayor was not aware of the Arts Council grant application until it was reported on in the media last week.”
It has also allowed Herrmann to take another swipe at the Manchester Evening News. Herrmann claims the Reach-owned paper has known about the story since 2022 but not reported on it.
“I don’t know why,” Herrmann said. “But they were sent it by the same source who eventually came to us. They actually got it ages ago, December 2022.”
In the meantime, Herrmann says he is happy Lord has called off his lawyers. “I’m relieved because it’s been six days of wondering how this is going to turn out, how this is going to end.
“I’m proud of my team that their journalism got them over the line.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
