Sheffield Tribune grows subscription base as local newsletters reshape journalism

The Sheffield Tribune is using a membership drive to test a simple but consequential idea: a local newsroom can survive by building a paying relationship with readers one inbox at a time. The site said it had reached 923 of its target of 1,000 new members and promised additional reporting projects if the goal was met, a concrete sign that subscriptions are now doing the work once expected of display ads and platform traffic.

That model began in 2021, after a conversation between Dan Hayes and Joshi Herrmann, and it took shape as a digital newspaper delivered by email. Herrmann runs the Tribune as part of the wider Mill Media network, alongside sister titles in Manchester and Liverpool, with shared editors and support through Mill Media Co. The Tribune’s own homepage says a new reader joins every hour, underscoring how aggressively the publication is trying to turn local interest into recurring revenue.

The broader financing backdrop helps explain why this approach has spread. In 2021, Substack awarded $1 million in grants to 12 local journalism projects around the world, and Press Gazette reported that Herrmann’s work was the only UK recipient. That funding helped support the growth of local newsletters in Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool, giving independent publishers room to build direct audience relationships outside legacy newsrooms and outside traditional advertising markets.

The results show why investors and publishers are paying close attention. Prospect Magazine reported that The Mill had roughly 55,000 subscribers and about 4,000 paying members in less than three years, a scale that would be meaningful for many regional outlets. Press Gazette said the Sheffield Tribune gained more than 300 paying members in its first month, and a later briefing quoted Herrmann saying Sheffield Tribune had more than 2,000 paying subscribers, while Liverpool Post had about 1,750.

Those numbers point to the central advantage of the newsletter model: ownership of the audience relationship. Readers receive reporting directly, publishers collect recurring revenue, and the product can be built around a recognizable editorial personality rather than a distant masthead. But the same reporting also shows the ceiling. In September 2024, Press Gazette reported that Mill Media titles would move from Substack to Ghost-hosted websites, a reminder that newsletter-first publishers can outgrow the platforms that helped launch them.

For Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool, the bet is no longer whether local newsletters can attract attention. It is whether they can convert that attention into a durable business that supports more reporting, more staff and enough scale to last.