The independent journalism Exeter needs
Exeter Observer is a new kind of independent news organisation that holds wealth, power and influence to account while helping people participate more effectively in local democracy.
We’re expanding our team to cover more of what matters and foster our city’s cultural and community life, so we’re seeking investors, members and contributors to help us grow.
Exeter Observer is published by Exeter Observer Limited, an FCA-registered non-profit community benefit society that is democratically owned and run.
We are regulated by IMPRESS, the UK’s only Leveson-compliant press regulator, and uphold the Editors’ Code of Practice and NUJ Code of Conduct.
The story so far
We began publishing in April 2019. In our first year we established the editorial track record required for IMPRESS, BBC Local News Partnerships and ICNN membership and began training two groups of community journalists before the pandemic put development on hold.
The core team sustained the project and the readership grew. In April 2021 we raised £50,000 to finance a two-year development strategy, became an employer and launched The Exeter Digest, our essential email newsletter.
Twelve months later website traffic and subscriber numbers had both doubled, and in January this year we published our 300th story and passed 250,000 monthly page views.
We now employ two staff and have published work by sixteen volunteer contributors.
Democracy doesn’t work when people don’t know
Exeter Observer is part of an agile, innovative local news sector that is emerging in response to the failure of established publishers to fulfil their function in local democracy.
We never publish advertorial, clickbait or party political broadcasts and our non-profit ethos respects your privacy while protecting the public sphere.
Our community-owned subscription-based business model sustains other successful public interest journalism publishers, supporting serious reporting and analysis with real relevance and impact while helping civil society to thrive.
How we plan to grow
With support from Co-ops UK we have developed a growth plan based on a comprehensive local public interest news service that keeps readers informed about what matters with clarity and finesse.
We will expand our coverage to make complex issues accessible to a wider range of readers, tell more stories that explore the impact of decision-making on local people, publish more comment and editorial and extend our geographic scope to report on Exeter’s sprawling borders.
We will help people better understand how things work by publishing briefings that explain tangled topics with key statistics from authoritative sources and guides to local democracy and governance. A factcheck service is in development too.
We also plan to provide an events guide for residents (rather than a listings guide for tourists) and a community notice board that reflects Exeter’s public sphere, helping underfunded arts and culture creators to reach new audiences and the city’s civil society to thrive.
And we will host elections hustings that address the challenges we face, local democracy literacy workshops that bring our briefings and guides to life, and regular feedback forums to enable Exeter Observer’s greatest resource - the communities it serves - to inform the way it fulfils its mission.
Our overarching aim is to build on all this to launch a regular print edition, publishing the independent journalism Exeter needs in the community-owned newspaper it deserves.
Community share offer
With the help of a Reach Fund grant we have prepared a community share offer to raise the investment needed to finance this growth.
We have received advance assurance from HMRC that our share offer is eligible for 50% tax relief under its Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, with scope to claim capital gains tax and loss relief too, minimising investment risk.
We are also pursuing the possibility of becoming the UK’s first public interest journalism publisher to gain charitable status, blazing a trail which would confer a range of benefits and have a significant impact beyond revitalising Exeter’s public sphere.
Traditional local news publishers are failing the communities they are supposed to serve in towns and cities across the country. Exeter Observer’s success can be recreated everywhere committed citizens are prepared to invest in local news that matters.
Please get in touch to talk about any aspect of our community share offer by emailing us at [email protected] or come along to an informal event to find out more.
Invest in local news that matters
You can download full details of our community share offer, including its terms and conditions, and the Rules of Exeter Observer Limited below.
Exeter Observer community share offer document
Rules of Exeter Observer Limited
Community share offer application
We will process your application then email you with a request from our payment service provider GoCardless to authorise a bank transfer to purchase your shares.
We use GoCardless to ensure as much of your investment as possible is retained for its intended purpose, as it caps payment transaction fees at £4 + VAT. Fees can be as high as 10% on third-party crowdfunding platforms.
Please contact us if you would prefer to arrange a fee-free payment direct via BACS instead, or are applying on behalf of an organisation.
We will communicate with you about all aspects of your membership of Exeter Observer using your email address. Please notify us of any change to this address without delay.
Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy.
Exeter Observer is published by Exeter Observer Limited, Community Benefit Society No. 8435 registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014.
Our registered address is St Sidwell’s Community Centre, Sidwell Street, Exeter EX4 6NN.
