Alt Reading

 Interview with Niall Norbury

(Editor)

What Makes Alt Reading hyperlocal?

Alt Reading is hyperlocal in both a geographic sense (only focusing on Reading and not surrounding towns) as well as only focusing on arts, culture and similar events in town. We end up writing about some specific communities in Reading and not just about traffic, crime and other news.

Why do you think hyperlocal journalism is relevant?

I think hyperlocal journalism tends to fill gaps left by other local media. In our case, Reading has a growing cultural scene but none of the local media was able to write about it in much detail or with much knowledge. In other cases, it may be because a town/village is overlooked or a paper has closed down.

How effective is the Alt Reading forum? How do your viewers engage with it?

I think we're quite effective: we have 25,000 regular readers and many of our readers end up going to to events or bars and restaurants based off our content.

How do you decide which topics and stories to use?

We consider culture to have 5 stands: arts & theatre, music & entertainment, history and heritage, community groups and independent businesses. For us, the tricky editorial decisions are when there's an interesting subject but it doesn't fit into the above or an interesting restaurant that's a chain - in those situations it's decided on a case by case basis.

How much public input do you have in curating stories and gathering content?

All of our writers are volunteers and involved in local arts and culture - I'm increasingly giving our writers more control of the management of the website and input into editorial decisions. However, we will always listen to our readers if we they want different types of content.

How representative of the community is the publication?

I think we're more representative of local arts & culture than other local media. Mainly because our team knows more about theatre, music and comedy than the local press - meaning we can highlight those who have difficulty promoting themselves. Additionally, I feel we're more inclusive of gender and ethnicity than other local media but there are still improvements we can make.

Do you feel Alt Reading is connected to a greater movement or a wider collective of hyperlocal journalism?

Yes and no. Hyperlocal media wasn't on my radar when I started it and I only feel somewhat connected to most hyperlocal media. But as said, I feel connected in the sense of us being independent and driven by a mission, rather than for profit and clicks.

What are the demographics of your main viewers?

An average reader for us is around 20-35. Apart from that we have a good mix though we find we have an audience more interesting in going out to events that other local media demonstrating by our higher clickthrough rates.