It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?*
A letter from the editor 🗞️
Well, that went by quick. One minute it was April, spring, a season of renewal, trees blossoming, plants flowering, the sharpness of winter fading away – and we were just one click away from launching The Ilkley Journal. And the next moment it’s apparently October, autumn, the days shorter, darker and colder, leaves dancing in the wind. And we’re now six months old.
In many respects, while a lot has happened in the half year between then and now, moments that will be forgotten, events that will be remembered by history, it feels like no time has passed at all. Time, on occasion, is funny like that, unruly in its temperament, always in a hurry, a perennial rule breaker.
But, here we are, facts being facts, heading into the final months of 2024. And it feels fitting to briefly pause and reflect a little on the progress we’ve made. All in all, limited as we are in resource – time, cash, talent – we’re fairly happy with where we’re at and feel like we’ve done a lot in a relatively short amount of time.
That said, being ambitious and all, we would like to have achieved a lot more and found ourselves far further down the proverbial road than we where currently are. That’s fine. That’s life. We’re not in a mad rush to get to where we want to be (although life would certainly be a lot easier if we did). As such, our enthusiasm, commitment and belief in The Ilkley Journal remains as strong as ever. We will keep moving forwards.
As for our work, to date, we have published 28 times, a mix between our bread and butter, long-form articles – like our inaugural feature on the mayoral election in West Yorkshire, our interview with councillor Anne Hawksworth, our in-depth look at the history of a building that is now occupied by McDonald’s on Coutances Way – op-eds from a spectrum as wide and varied as Bob Buxton, co-leader of the Yorkshire Party and John Wood, the Green Party parliamentary candidate for 2024, and informative round-ups that we believe, at least in intent, are still true to our mission of slow journalism.
Because, more than anything, we want to keep it slow and take our time to produce high-quality, well-researched, well-investigated and well-written stories of depth and quality. Doing things quicker isn’t necessarily better – and this is very true of journalism, where a false sense of urgency has resulted in a culture of churnalism that is characterised by a diminished way of working where there’s an expectation to deliver a high volume of average if not substandard content. We’ve lost a sense of pride in our work, of craft, of being attentive, in understanding, at a deeper level, the work we’re doing.
We’re a very different kind of publication. The reason is simple. We’re not in the business of being first, chasing after clicks, pandering to tech companies and their algorithms, their metrics, their monetisable audiences (although, of course, we still participate in some of that for a multitude of reasons).
Instead, The Ilkley Journal is committed to journalism that is more substantial, of depth; journalism that is original, informative and interesting; journalism that is thought-provoking and insightful; and journalism that holds power to account. We also want our work to be a pleasure to read, whatever the subject, because good quality and readable journalism is one of life’s great pleasures. Is it easy to do? No. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
So, as we endeavour to grow our reach, increase our readership and start to have more of an impact over the next six months, you can expect more of the same and a whole lot more – compelling long-reads, provocative opinion pieces and unique perspectives you won’t find anywhere else.
We’d also like to get closer to being a fully sustainable online local newspaper. And the only way we’re really going to do that, the only way we want to do that, is through you, our readers. It’s you guys that, in the end, will enable us to be able to deliver the kind of journalism that is needed more than ever at a local level. Whether you think of yourself as a supporter, a member or an advocate, signing up as a paid subscriber will help us to fund our journalism in an unbiased and independent way (and a few cups of tea).
And if you do this over the next seven days, you’ll benefit from a whopping 40% discount off our regular price – that’s our birthday gift to you. In terms of what that looks like, for a monthly subscription, it’s just £4.17 a month, the equivalent of 13p a day. For an annual subscription, it’s just £41.87. Not only is the latter 16% cheaper than the former, it works out as just 11p a day. We’ll even throw in a free paperback as a bonus for either.
Finally, we’d just like to say to thank you to everyone who has subscribed, everyone who has sent us kind words, everyone who has given up their time – it means a lot. As for our birthday celebrations, well, seeing as it’s we’re only six months old, it’s not really a proper birthday, we. So, for now, it’s back to work. But don’t worry. There’s a large whisky waiting for me this evening. Have a good day.
*Attributed to Henry David Thoreau