About The Northern Bulletin

The Northern Bulletin began as a small print supplement distributed in community centres and libraries across the region. That was 2009. The supplement ran to twelve pages, covered planning disputes and school closures, and was edited by two people working evenings after their day jobs. The website came later, reluctantly, when it became clear that print alone couldn't sustain the costs.

We've never been funded by a media conglomerate. We've never taken editorial direction from advertisers. The journalism here is produced by a small team of reporters who live in the communities they cover — which means they're not parachuted in for a day and then gone. They sit on the same buses, use the same hospitals, and send their children to the same schools as the people they write about.

Our coverage focuses on local government, housing, health, transport, and the economy as it actually affects people in England's towns and smaller cities. We don't chase national political drama for its own sake. When we do cover Westminster, it's because a decision there has a direct consequence here.

Our Team

Margaret Holloway is our senior reporter, covering housing and local government. She joined in 2012 after a decade at a regional daily and has broken several stories on planning irregularities that were later picked up nationally.

James Whitfield covers the economy and retail. He spent three years freelancing before joining the Bulletin full-time in 2018. His series on high street decline ran to seven parts and remains our most-read body of work.

Patricia Dunne is our transport and infrastructure correspondent. She came to journalism late, after a career in civil engineering, which gives her reporting a technical grounding that's genuinely rare in local news.

Editorial Independence

All editorial decisions are made by the editorial team. No advertiser, sponsor, or third party has any influence over what we publish, how we frame stories, or which subjects we investigate. Our editorial policy sets this out in full.