Get your 10p-per day subscription to sustain The Edinburgh Minute into 2025

As 2024 draws to a close, I’m writing to say a huge thanks for your support in helping me in my first year of self-employment. When I launched the Minute in early 2023, it was never planned as a business. This time last year I was part-time in a couple of jobs. Now I’ve been full-time most of this year and also launched The London Minute. Covering the two cities I’ve lived in is such a privilege. I’m seeking your support to help me do it again in 2025…

The Minute went live and daily in March 2023. After a few weeks of kicking the format into shape (and testing whether I could in fact wake up at 5am to curate all the news), I asked some pals to have a read and share newsletter if they liked it.

Since then, thanks to your word-of-mouth recommendations, more than 17,000 people receive the Minute every day for free. I really enjoy putting it together and getting to know what matters to you. And local news sources have had more than 500,000 visits as a result too. So it's supporting them and saving you time.

But the truth is, the Minute wouldn't happen without the kind people who currently pay for their subscriptions. I pay a chunk of that income on hosting fees and admin. Substack costs me 10% of the income, which I believe is worth it. Unlike other sites, there are no ads here and it’s fiercely and proudly independent from an editorial point of view. No ‘sponsored content’, advertorials or irrelevant stories about other places here. It’s 100% Edinburgh and I don’t plan to change that, as it’s where I call home too.

Now I’m committing to sending the Minute every day again in 2025. So I'm asking for your support up-front, please. So if you're able to support The Edinburgh Minute in 2025 with an annual subscription, now is the time to support local news with your wallet.

And because you've read this far, you can get 20% off your annual subscription if you use this link:

While the cost of everything in life continues to rise, I’m locking in the price once again and as long as enough people subscribe, I have no plans to up it. No reason for me to be greedy here though; it’s one of the city’s cheapest Substacks thanks to my naive business brain but also thanks to its scale. The Minute audience has become one of the the biggest and most-engaged online community groups in UK news. More than 1,400 people have contributed stories and events this year. I’ve always been focused on a ‘grow slow’ mindset as long as you’re still happy with the newsletter and find it useful. So let’s do it again in 2025.

With 20% off, that’s about 10p per day. It's only valid this week, so don't delay! Your subscription will help keep the Minute alive in 2025 and hopefully beyond.

🎅🏻 If you already subscribe, thank you! Now is a good time to gift a subscription to a neighbour who also cares about Edinburgh. Or a colleague in a Secret Santa at work? At £5 for the month, it's about as cheap as local news gets:

Thanks so much,
Michael

PS. Here’s a kind note from writer Ian Rankin about why he subscribes:

And he’s not alone in supporting the newsletter:

PS. I honestly can’t say ‘thank you’ enough to everyone who used the festive discount last year. Every paying subscriber’s support meant I could afford to take time off at some very tough moments in life this year. But I do rely your help to keep the lights on, otherwise the Minute won’t continue. So I’m sending this year’s deal early in the hope you’ll renew it for another year. If you need to save money, just cancel your existing subscription now and sign up with the discount today. It’s a business based on goodwill both ways, so I trust you to do what’s right for your circumstances and outlook. Thanks again.