Founder’s Note: The Knot Takes a Holiday

We're out of office next week. Plus an update on The Knot's progress.

Dear Readers,

The Knot will be out of office from 14^th July - 21^st July. There will no issue of The Knot on Monday 15^th July and no issue of What’s On on 16^th July. 

You will receive a feature on Oatcakes tomorrow morning. Then, The Knot 020 will be back on Monday 22^nd July and normal service will resume. We’ll continue to share good news, what’s on, things to do, food recommendations and important features with you. 

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After 4 months of The Knot, it’s an important moment for me to step away, take a break and recharge. Much of our news and media bombards us with information and plays into a world that wants us to always be on, stuck to our phones consuming. I want The Knot to be different, where you get curated, quality, need-to-know information to be consumed at your leisure. Therefore, if The Knot needs a holiday from the news (and my phone), just like you might - we’ll take one. 

Video version of this update below.

We’ve hit a natural plateau, with just under 2000 subscribers, The Knot reaches a significant number of people a week. However, our growth rate has slowed after the initial buzz of our launch. The bottleneck, is me and I’ve likely maxed out what I can produce in a given week of writing, sharing, building relationships, information gathering and being out in the real world meeting people. 

The next chapter for The Knot will be to introduce to you a small team of writers and contributors to share news and thought pieces regularly with you. That will leave me with the opportunity to figure out an appropriate revenue model for The Knot that pays people to deliver quality and tailored information to you across email and social media. 

I’m in no doubt that our region needs a new media outlet to fill the ever-growing gaps in our coverage. I’m confident The Knot can fill it. Experience tells me to be patient, focus on providing a quality service to you and the money will follow. For transparency, as it stands, I’d like to keep The Knot free for readers - the underlying mission is to change people’s perception of, and champion our region, therefore I’d like to reach as many people as possible with our and stories and information. So, if the paywall door is closed, two other doors remain open. 

One door is sponsorship and advertisement, done in a bespoke and stylish way that doesn’t detract from the consumption experience or ethics of the writing. The second door is a less explored path of “community news” that could include a wide range of funding, from sponsorship, donations, patronage and grant funding. As with any entrepreneurial journey, there is probably also an avenue that hasn’t shown itself yet.

Finally, the reason I am writing to you so openly about how I’d like to build The Knot is because I want it to be for you and for our community, for many years to come. People here haven’t always had the best experience of being listened to and that can leave you feeling like your voice doesn’t matter. I’d like to change that and for The Knot to give people a voice, both in stories being shared and what a new media outlet needs to look like to serve our community for the long term. 

Right, I’m going to trek through the alps for 7 days. Which already feels like the perfect metaphor for creating a meaningful new business. 

My email is always open to hear from you; thoughts, feedback, gentle critique, story ideas and questions. Simply respond to these emails. 

Cheers,

James