Exeter Observer is produced by a tiny newsroom with two staff: Leigh Curtis and Martin Redfern. It has also published work by sixteen volunteer contributors since its 2019 launch. It does not accept unsolicited submissions.
Its website is its primary publishing platform. It is designed to contrast with the clutter that crowds out content on other local media channels and developed to meet best practice technical and performance standards.
Exeter Observer also publishes The Exeter Digest, a free email newsletter which provides a regular round-up of recent stories with a curated selection of community and culture events.
It also employs selected social media channels to promote individual stories and reach readers and communities of interest across the city and beyond.
“It is a necessary condition of the freedom of the press to act in the public interest.”
In the six and a half years since its April 2019 launch Exeter Observer has published over 1,000 news stories, features, investigations, community and culture previews, galleries, newsletters and special reports.
Its website serves 1.5 million page views each year to 50,000 regular monthly readers.
It often sets the local news agenda, breaking major stories and offering insight about what’s going in Exeter that can’t be found anywhere else.