Expand The Staffordshire Signal: TV, App & Podcast

Aim

Help us grow Signal TV and launch a Signal podcast and app, so more of Staffordshire's stories reach more people, free from algorithms.

We want to fix local news in Staffordshire. We're asking you to help us do it.

For the last year, I've built The Staffordshire Signal from nothing, no investors, no big backer, just this county's own people supporting their own newsroom. Now I'm asking Staffordshire to help me take it further: growing The Staffordshire Signal TV, launching a new Signal podcast, and building the smartphone app that finally puts local news back in your pocket, not an algorithm's.

Whatever you can give, from £5, helps make that happen. Here's why it matters, and exactly what your support builds.

In brief:

• The Staffordshire Signal TV is already live, real students, real documentaries, we want to grow it and make it sustainable
• We're launching a new Signal podcast, so you can watch, listen or read, whichever suits you
• We're building the Staffordshire Signal app, so you're not relying on a social media algorithm to ever see us again
• Everything we do stays free for the people of Staffordshire, no paywalls, no barriers
• We're asking both the public and local businesses to back this, there's a place on this page for you either way

Why I started this

I see the good in Staffordshire every day. Through my work as The Red Haired Stokie, I've spent years out in this community, working directly with residents, businesses, councils, charities and community groups across the county, celebrating this place properly. Over 75,000 people already follow that work. I'm not new here, and I'm not doing this from behind a desk in London.

But local media too often twists things for profit and negativity, chasing clicks rather than truth, so the genuinely good stories rarely get through. Businesses struggle to reach local people without relying on social media, and that's controlled by worldwide corporations with no interest in Staffordshire, local always loses out. I've missed events and good news myself, finding out after the fact because an algorithm decided I didn't need to see it.

I wanted people to actually learn about their own local area, in a genuine, positive way, instead of missing what's happening on their own doorstep because a platform they don't control decided not to show it to them.

Students filming a documentary at Foxfield Colliery for The Staffordshire Signal TV - Photo by Jenna Goodwin / The Staffordshire Signal

Who we are

The Staffordshire Signal launched in April 2025. Staffordshire's independent, not-for-profit newsroom, and nowhere else's:

• Not a distant regional chain covering the county as an afterthought
• Not a business built to make money off local news
• IMPRESS regulated
• Run by people who actually live here
• Genuinely training the next generation of local journalists, not just covering today's headlines

We deliberately haven't sought investors. We don't want shareholders, and we don't want anyone with a stake in this telling us what to cover. We want to stay independent, because that's the entire point of what we're building. And the honest truth is, a newsroom like ours slips through the cracks of nearly all grant funding, too small for some, the wrong shape for others. That's exactly why this is in your hands, not a fund's.

What we've built so far

In just over a year:

• A free monthly print magazine reaching over 40,000 people across print and digital
• The Staffordshire Signal Weekly, our email newspaper, a proper weekly round-up landing in people's inboxes, not just a marketing bulletin
• A website that's become a genuine, growing source of local news
• A community-led events calendar, so people can see what's on before they miss it, not after
• The Staffordshire Signal TV, up and running, with real students producing real documentaries

Why this matters

There are stories happening across this county every single day that never get told anywhere. Events people miss because nobody let them know. Good news, great people, small businesses doing brilliant things, the stuff that doesn't get covered because it isn't negative or dramatic enough to earn clicks elsewhere.

That's not a gap in one part of Staffordshire. It's everywhere. And it's the whole reason the Signal exists.

This is where you come in. Whether you back us with £1 or £500, you're the reason more of these stories get told.

What our readers told us

We didn't just decide this was what people wanted, we asked. In a survey of our own readers, we asked what would encourage them to support the Signal further. The answers, unprompted, in their own words, tell their own story:

• 20% said knowing every penny stays in Staffordshire, funding local projects and events
• 16% wanted a news source that prioritises deep, meaningful stories over clickbait
• 14% said knowing their support helps the Signal fight back against big media companies
• 12% specifically wanted us to expand into local video and investigative reporting
• 10% wanted free copies funded for libraries, schools and care homes

That's not us guessing what matters to Staffordshire. That's Staffordshire telling us. And it's exactly what this crowdfunder does.

What this crowdfunder actually does

The Staffordshire Signal TV already exists, but it doesn't yet have the kit, training capacity or time to run properly and grow. This crowdfunder builds that:

• Expanding The Staffordshire Signal TV so it can take on more students and cover more stories
• Launching a new Signal podcast alongside it
• Getting the app out, so you can carry all of it with you, watch, listen or read, wherever you are

The purpose of this platform is simple: connect the people of Staffordshire with the best of Staffordshire, its venues, its businesses, its stories, its places. Information is what builds pride in a place. You can't be proud of, visit, use, or get involved with something you never even knew existed. That's the gap we're here to close.

Training the next generation, right now

The Staffordshire Signal TV runs in official partnership with T Level Media students from The City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, real students, gaining real, hands-on newsroom experience most of them wouldn't get anywhere else in this county. We're already in conversation with other schools, colleges and universities across Staffordshire about extending this further, so more young people, in more places, get the same opportunity.

The Midlands Air Ambulance, photographed for a feature in The Staffordshire Signal magazine and website - Photo by Jenna Goodwin / The Staffordshire Signal

In numbers

In just over a year, and without a penny of external funding: over 40,000 people reached monthly across print and digital, 2,000+ Signal Weekly subscribers with a 53% open rate, around 8,500 website visitors a month and rising. Over 6,000 followers across our official channels, plus an 11,800-member Facebook community group on top of that, plus 5.65 million social impressions and 289,450 interactions in the past year alone.

Almost everyone who reads us found us through word of mouth, social media, or spotting a physical copy somewhere, not a marketing budget. No paid advertising has ever brought a single reader to the Signal. Every one of you got here because someone told you, or you simply saw us and were curious.

Our readers include the business owners and decision-makers of this county too, not just its residents, a genuine spread of business founders and senior managers read the Signal regularly, alongside everyone else.

What I've learned

People are hungry for information, they just don't know where to look. Print isn't dead, people still crave something tangible, it disappeared because large corporations decided it wasn't profitable, not because people stopped wanting it.

People are genuinely tired of algorithms deciding what they're allowed to see. Going direct to the reader removes that, and puts Staffordshire back in direct contact with itself.

In a world full of scams, bots and AI-generated everything, we're real. A real phone number. Real people you can meet in person. Real local businesses you can actually visit.

Every supporter gets something too

Every supporter, from £5, gets a full year of Signal Supporter membership, worth £24, early access to everything we make, The Staffordshire Signal Weekly, the digital magazine, and first look at every Staffordshire Signal TV video before anyone else sees it. This isn't just a donation, it's a genuine year of the Signal, on us.

For businesses reading this

This is the perfect moment to get your business in front of Staffordshire:

• Trusted and IMPRESS regulated
• A direct connection to genuinely engaged readers who chose to be here, nobody's tricked into clicking, picking up the magazine or signing up
• Everything free for the reader, no paywalls, no barriers
• Storytelling that works, people buy from people, and want to support businesses whose story they actually know

Back this campaign, and you'll get a genuine one-off discount on advertising with us, at rates you won't see again. This is exactly the same offer we're making to the public, just built for you: back Staffordshire, and get real, tangible value in return.

Where your money goes

Here's how we'll use it: around a quarter goes straight into building and launching the Staffordshire Signal app. A third goes into camera, audio and editing equipment, so our students and volunteers on The Staffordshire Signal TV have what they actually need to do this properly, not making do with what we can borrow or scrape together. Just over a third goes towards giving me and the team the time to actually cover more stories and events on video, web and in print, rather than fitting it in around everything else. The rest, a small slice, covers platform and payment processing fees.

If we go beyond target, every extra pound goes straight into more kit for our students and volunteers, better cameras, better audio, so more of them can be out covering stories at once.

I'm not going to pretend this is easy. But I believe Staffordshire deserves better than a media blackout, and local people are the ones who should own their own news.

Whatever you can give, helps make this happen. Back us today, and help keep Staffordshire's stories in Staffordshire's hands.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 28th August 2026 at 5:00pm