The Knot joins The Lead Network

A new chapter for The Knot

I’m delighted to announce that The Knot is joining The Lead as part of a network of local media titles across the UK.

Helen, Luke, Mike, Ed and Me at The Quarter at Potbank, Spode Works

You’ll remember that a few months ago I put a call out for more support on The Knot, not just volunteers but someone to drive The Knot forwards. The team at The Lead were the ones to answer this call.

The Lead’s local network currently includes titles in Blackpool, Lancashire, Southport and Calderdale and a recent addition covering the South Wales Valleys. Last year their network won Regional Newsletter of the Year at the Press Gazette’s Future of Media Awards.

The Lead’s editorial team is full of journalism experience. It’s led by Ed Walker as managing editor, who has extensive experience with a number of senior roles in local journalism, and he also founded news title Blog Preston. Luke Beardsworth has senior journalism and culture writing experience with Drowned in Sound and will be working closely with Helen. Zoë Grünewald is The Lead’s Westminster editor and is ex- New Statesman and The Independent. She’s a regular commentator on TV and radio talking about national politics. Finally, Mike Harris is the publisher of The Lead and the founder and CEO of 89up, Europe’s biggest agency supporting non-profits on environmental and social causes around the globe.

Like The Knot, The Lead are passionate about giving a platform and a voice to communities that are being under-represented or, worse, dominated by one legacy media outlet no longer serving the community with a click-bait brand of journalism.

For us, this partnership makes a lot of sense and gives The Knot the direction of travel that our readers and community want. When deciding what the next move was for The Knot, I looked at our most-read posts over the last two years. The data told the story, all of our most-popular and most-read pieces were features on politics, breaking news stories or takes on big topics such as immigration.

I’ve long wanted to bring a harder edged journalism (with a capital J) to The Knot but lacked the skills and experience to do so. By working with The Lead, we have the remit to do more of this and the experience to back us up. The Lead’s editorial team are all experienced journalists that give The Knot credibility and firepower. Under the stewardship of The Lead there is no stopping us tackling pertinent and complex topics our region faces.

There’s a deeper political and cultural shift that plays into this as well. Our focus on good news and pride of place has set us apart. However, to serve this region we can’t focus on good news alone. Readers with a keen eye will have noticed that in our recent editions where we announced local election results, our heading was Election News and Good News.

The Knot’s values have always been implicit. Optimism, curiosity, open-mindedness – our nature is fair, compassionate and liberal. Through our partnership with The Lead, we can be even more explicit. We are unashamedly anti-racist and anti-far right. This partnership cements that stake in the ground and gives us a foundation to take more of a position on topics that matter.

The Knot will continue to share good news, what’s on, and be a positive voice for the area, but we will not sit passively by to hate and division. Instead we’ll take a closer look at the issues and events that are really impacting our community here and fuelling these hateful narratives. As you’ll see in The Lead’s recent coverage, there is no siding with any political party; Reform and Labour have both been investigated in recent pieces. This isn’t about a particular political party; it’s about protecting values that are important to us as writers, journalists and humans. It’s these values we will stand upon.

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As the person that breathed the initial life into The Knot, intuitively, this move for us feels totally right and a natural part of our maturity into an established independent media outlet. We won’t lose our “softer” edges that focus on the positive, new restaurants, gigs, and events. But, we’ll add a harder edge that I hope creates even more trust with people in our region. Plus, we are now part of something bigger.

As for me, I’ll be sticking around but taking a step back to support and guide The Knot into our next era. I’ll still be here to write an occasional thought piece or pass an interesting story to the team. I’m really pleased with where The Knot has arrived and I am incredibly grateful to all of you who have read The Knot, paid to support us and backed me personally. I don’t think I’ll be running up and down Piccadilly interviewing people or arguing with people about why Stoke isn’t “sh*t” any more though - I’ll pass the mic to someone else on that front. I’m really satisfied with the contribution I’ve personally made to my “Mission Stoke” and I hope it won’t be the last. I’m confident that The Knot will continue to grow from strength to strength and be the alternative independent news outlet for Stoke and North Staffordshire I’ve always dreamed it to be.

#303: Mission Stoke Review

The other great news is that Helen is sticking around and will join The Lead editorial team. That’s one journalist The Knot has put on the streets and given a role to in this area. This, I’m really delighted about. Through our partnership with The Lead we also gain access to BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, meaning we can share BBC-funded local journalism with you without it being covered in ads.

To our paid subscribers, supporters and patrons - thank you for getting us this far! I’m excited for our new chapter. Keep reading, keep supporting Stoke and North Staffs and when you see something good in our area, think…

That’s one for The Knot,

Cheers,
James