The Yorkshire Post launches pay-per-day option with Axate to improve access to its quality, highly trusted journalism

A friend of mine text messaged just a day or so ago linking me to some journalism produced by a competitor right here in Yorkshire.
Yorkshire Post business reporter Ismail Mulla interviews Gurdev Singh from The Printing CharityYorkshire Post business reporter Ismail Mulla interviews Gurdev Singh from The Printing Charity
Yorkshire Post business reporter Ismail Mulla interviews Gurdev Singh from The Printing Charity

Having clicked the link, I was greeted by an article that detailed the ‘horror’ that ensued when a dog devoured a child’s faeces. That was the story.

He couldn’t resist peppering me with facetious sarcasm as he delighted in warning me: “The Yorkshire Post is done for - look what you’re up against!”

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But, you see, this is the crossroads we are at when it comes to regional journalism in this country. Just this week we have led our news agenda with:-

- Calls for those behind the wrongful imprisonment of subpostmasters to face justice

- The abject unfairness of the poor being made poorer and rich richer by inheritance tax laws

- Demands for an inquiry into the sleaze allegations engulfing government - questions that ministers said were ‘not important’

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- Highlighted evidence that women in the north of England have been hit hardest by the pandemic, largely owing to their key worker commitments

Those are our splash stories in the last few days alone.

It goes without saying that The Yorkshire Post is committed to producing quality, highly trusted, campaigning journalism done for the betterment of Yorkshire. But the trading conditions make that mission an unenviable one.

My vision when I took the reins in 2016 was to have the title resist whimsical vagaries of right versus left and focus on journalism guided by right and wrong.

Keeping that vision sustainable, given the significant cost of producing high quality words and photographs, and accessible, in as much as I want our journalism to be for everyone, is the challenge.

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So today I am pleased to announce a working partnership with Axate. A pay-per-day option that will help to maintain the standards set by Yorkshire's National Newspaper whilst keeping true to our journalism-for-all aspirations.

Our subscribers are our lifeblood. They make possible what we do and they remain our absolute priority but we want to share our work as widely as possible in the hope that others will join what we are trying to create.

In doing this, I hope to be able to one day look back on the regional news landscape and see The Yorkshire Post still standing head and shoulders above its competitors - a beacon of integrity and quality - and say to myself: I knew there was another way, a better way of protecting public interest journalism from the dumbing down force of the clicks-for-quids model.

I also hope to be able return that text message from that so-called friend.

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For information on how to purchase digital subscription packages, visit our Subscriptions page. During the local election period, you can access our Premium politics coverage with a 25 per cent discount if you sign up for a Yorkshire Post digital subscription before May 13. Use code LOCALELEC21 at the checkout.

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