Hundreds have already subscribed to The Mill as members. Join them now with a 10% discount

The Mill started in June as an attempt to re-imagine local journalism by going back to old principles: balanced reporting, good writing and giving readers the context they need to understand what is really going on in Greater Manchester.

It’s funded by readers via our membership program, which means we don’t have to carpet-bomb our website with ads (we actually don’t have any ads), and don’t have to churn out dozens of low-value “viral” stories. Almost 500 people from every borough of GM have subscribed and they are receiving members-only stories in their inboxes.

If you would like to join, there is a time-limited 10% discount running now. It locks in your reduced membership price forever - just click the button below.

Member benefits

Members-only stories: Our members get full access to all our reporting and writing, including insightful political and business coverage, great culture writing, reports from big trials, features about the people and ideas changing Manchester, analysis of the decisions made by the borough councils and their planning committees and great pieces about our local history. Members receive original reporting and writing every couple of days instead of every week.

A group of Mancunians reading our content

Joining our community: The Mill is based on the idea that the best journalism comes from being close to readers and knowing what they care about. That means building a community of engaged members who have a stake in what we are doing and can contribute their ideas and expertise to our stories. This is how our community works

• We have a discussion group on Facebook, where members can get to know each other, share ideas and talk about stories we have published - or should publish. It is fun, friendly and constructive - a rare thing among local Facebook groups.

• We will be doing regular community threads on the site. They are like long comment threads about one topic, often something timely. Members will get an email inviting them to take part.

• And then, once the Covid restrictions allow it, we start our member meetups. These will feature a quick update on The Mill, a short contribution from one of our members about a topic of interest followed by a bit of discussion, and then a chance to chat and hang out.

Why it matters:

We are entirely funded by our members, and the more who join, the bigger and better The Mill will be. Members are paying for high-quality writing and reliable journalism, but they are also funding the growth of an institution that will serve Manchester and its surrounding communities for a long time.

The first stage is to get enough members to make The Mill sustainable at its current size with our current costs. We’re hoping to achieve that by Christmas. After that, it’s about funding our growth - which will include commissioning more great writers, funding investigations and hiring a team of staff writers and editors.

We’ve made an exciting start but we’re only three and a half months into The Mill’s story. Please join today to help us make this sustainable and kickstart our growth.

Things to bear in mind:

• The Mill is brand new and is based on a new model, so inevitably as we grow we will make changes to what we publish and how we do things. We will always tell you about the changes we are making and explain the thinking behind them.

• Members will receive posts from The Mill every week of the year, but there will be a handful of weeks when we will publish on a reduced schedule while I take time off. When we have a bigger staff in future, this won’t be necessary.