Hoorah!

It’s official – we’re the best!

Hastings Online Times has won the first national Co-operative Innovation Prize – and we are very happy!!  Below we reproduce the press release from Co-operatives UK.

The £2,000 innovation prize, awarded to Hastings Online Times by trade association Co-operatives UK, recognises sustainable business models for local news and media that draw on co-operative values and principles.

The Co-operative Innovation Prize has been established to encourage innovation amongst co-operative businesses and to develop innovation co-operatively in sectors that are new to the co-operative business model. It seeks to recognise and reward innovation that is either co-operative or can be implemented in a co-operative way.

Hastings Online Times is an online community newspaper and events listing with 4,500 readers each month, run entirely by around 20 volunteers and minimal advertising income.

Volunteer trainee citizen journalists benefit from the support and mentoring of a highly experienced freelance NUJ-accredited journalist and access to how-to guides and regular workshops on topics such as writing styles and image editing. Article priority, controversial editorial issues and requests for clarification are dealt with by an editorial discussion group

The newspaper runs on a WordPress platform, utilising freely-available open-source customisation modules and can easily be replicated, transferred and scaled up or down. Tried and tested documented newsgathering, editing and publishing processes are also transferable.

The Hastings Online Times is well supported by the community and intent on becoming a co-operative in the near future, potentially raising additional funding through a community shares issue to develop a mobile app and a print version of the listings guide.

The first innovation prize was targeted on the media industry, where many traditional newspapers in private ownership are under extreme pressure. Co-operatives UK, in partnership with the Carnegie Trust, promoted a series of ‘Make Your Local News Work’ road shows throughout the country this summer highlighting the success of several co-operatively owned and run publications including the New Internationalist and the West Highland Free Press.

Three runners-up all benefitted from a prize of £1,500.

The Bristol Cable Co-op – a fledgling co-operative started by young people, aiming to produce online and later printed versions of a newspaper within Bristol, with a particular focus on engaging with young and marginalised people.

Community Enterprise East London – Parents, Children and Schools Creating News – this group will involve school children from Barking and Dagenham in writing articles and commenting on local issues, with parents reviewing their work before submission to the online publication.

Scottish Inquirer – inspired by Dutch start-up De Nieuwe Pers, the Scottish Inquirer aims to be Scotland’s first independent publication dedicated to long-form, investigative and multi-media journalism making best use of data journalism, video, photography and web documentaries.

Commenting on the Co-operative Innovation Prize, Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, said:

“We had an outstanding range of quality applications and were very impressed with their innovative approach to creating sustainable and democratic new models of local media provision.  Whilst the winners all very different, each of the winners demonstrated how they can succeed by engaging their local communities and by putting the readers and writers at the heart of journalism.”

A spokesperson for Hastings Online Times added:

“We are very happy to have won the first Co-operative Innovation Prize for the work we have done with Hastings Online Times. While proud of what we have achieved so far, we feel that some form of co-operative model is the best way forward as we look to build a long-term sustainable future for our publication.”

Also in: Hastings People