A 10p-per day discount deal to sustain The Edinburgh Minute as a business in 2026

Back in 2022, this newsletter was just an idea. I was so fed up with how bad some local news websites were (and still are). Readers deserved better news. I sent the first edition to a few pals. It was not great! (You can see edition one here and edition two here). I was squeezing it in before my day job, motivated by my aims of making it easier for people to find local news while supporting local publishers.

Without advertising it or using social media, a gradual snowball of recommendations led to strangers reading the newsletter. After a few weeks, PEOPLE WHO I HAD NEVER MET WERE OFFERING TO PAY FOR IT. It blew my mind. It still does. I was getting up at 5am to write it for fun before my day job. Now, three years on, somehow it's become my job. I'll never be rich, but I'm saving some money for the first time in my life and hope to one day maybe be able to get a mortgage for a flat/house. As a journalist of 20 years, I was sure I'd be in Generation Rent forever, but this newsletter gives me so much hope and a living. I've learned how to run a business and supported other local publishers, businesses and charities by sending them millions of new visits. Together over three years we've all created a genuine community of readers who all care about where we live. The newsletter has helped people to sell out their events, helped charities do wonderful things, like help the Food Project get a new van. We've also lifted the lid on local democracy, helped pack out town halls and raise thousands of pounds for local causes. I'm so grateful to everyone who's now part of this. Thank you.

Today, thanks to word-of-mouth, The Edinburgh Minute is proof that local news can be 100% ad-free, independent, transparent and supported by its community of readers.

The 'pay if you want' model is pretty risky, though. It's based on you trusting me to deliver daily. I hope I'm proving it's worth the money. As promised nearly 800 daily editions ago, it remains:

• 100% ad-free (and always will be),
• Privacy focused: I don't sell your data to anyone (I wouldn't know how to anyway, so no worries there),
• Purely local: There's zero 'sponsored content' here, no advertorials and no irrelevant stories about other cities. It’s 100% Edinburgh and I don’t plan to change that, as it’s where I call home too.
• Free of clickbait: Unlike many other 'local' news outlets, some of which aren't really locally owned and are mostly national advertising operations.
• Disruptive: As well as making it easier for you to find the city's good journalism, the Minute calls out the clickbait and questions shady media practices that waste your time. Every edition of the newsletter aims to share the news you need to know along with better news; celebrating Edinburgh’s inspiring people, successful organisations and brilliant ideas. News doesn't need to be the traditional doom and gloom, because Edinburgh's got so much more going for it than that.

The Minute is a 'use it or lose it' service. And if you value this service, I'll keep on going with it every morning in 2026. My dream is to employ someone to help one day, but meantime your support helps me cover costs that keep the lights on. This year I moved the newsletter off Substack and on to my own platform (hello edinburghminute.com), ensuring full independence. I also worked with (and paid) a team of four journalists on a major investigation into the city's tax-dodging shops. Read that here. None of this happens without paying subscribers. It costs £5 per month or £45 per year. And at the end of this newsletter you'll find a 20% discount.

As a journalist you often wonder how you might be able to help fix the problems you write about every day. I can't fix them all as a one-man-band. But I've enjoyed collaborating with other reporters on various stories this year. Instead of having a marketing budget, I prefer to directly support causes where I can. So for the second year running I sponsored the Creative Edinburgh Awards and donated to the Edinburgh Food Project. Both were significant four figure sums. If anyone needs money it's artists and people facing poverty. Often those lines blur. So 'think global, start local' is one of my principles. Another is 'do one thing really well', so next year my only plan is to consistently deliver trustworthy journalism and community news.

The Minute simply wouldn't land in people's inboxes anymore without the support of generous paying subscribers. So if you're able to support The Edinburgh Minute in 2026 with an annual subscription, now is the moment to vote with your wallet. You'll get 20% off your annual subscription if you use this link. You'll also get exclusive bonus newsletters including the weekly Culture Minute and weekend guide. With the discount, it's £36 instead of £45 for the year.

That's about 10p per day. It's only valid this week, so now's the time. Your subscription is a vote for keeping local news alive, a vote for saving yourself time, a vote for keeping on top of all that's happening in town, a vote against clickbait, a vote against annoying pop–up adverts and auto-play videos and a vote against AI slop sucking the humanity and local knowledge out of news. Your support directly keeps the Minute ticking over in 2026 and hopefully beyond.

If you already subscribe: thank you. Thank you so much! I know some of you want to send gift subscriptions this month, and I'll be emailing you directly about that later this week...

Thanks for reading, and see you in the morning. - Michael