Shepton Mallet Nub News
Shepton Mallet Nub News is a hyperlocal online news publication serving Shepton Mallet in Somerset, England. Published at sheptonmallet.nub.news, it is part of Nub News, the independent digital-only network of town-based news websites founded in 2018. The site publishes Shepton Mallet news and community stories for a market town of around ten thousand people, five miles east of Wells and the closest town to the Glastonbury Festival site. Shepton Mallet joined the network in 2019 as one of a group of Somerset town sites launched under a single experienced regional editor, and its editorship later passed to Laura Linham, a Somerset journalist whose social media profile for the title names her as its editor. The publication follows the network's model of original, town-centred reporting, free access, community contributions checked by a journalist, and funding through local sponsorship and advertising. As part of Nub News it is regulated through the company's membership of the Independent Press Standards Organisation and its adherence to the Editors' Code of Practice.
Joining the Somerset network
Shepton Mallet became a Nub News town in May 2019, when the company appointed Tim Lethaby as regional editor for the South-West of England, responsible for sites covering Wells, Frome, Glastonbury, Midsomer Norton, Shepton Mallet, Cheddar, Radstock and Street. Lethaby had direct experience of the town's print title, the Shepton Mallet Journal, which he had edited as part of the Mid Somerset Series during a 21-year career that took him from trainee reporter to editor. He had also edited the Central Somerset Gazette, the Cheddar Valley Gazette, the Wells Journal, the Western Gazette, the Somerset Guardian and the Frome Standard, and had overseen seven Reach plc weeklies before his job was put at risk in the November 2018 restructure. His appointment was reported as an axed editor taking on his old titles in a new role. In later years the Shepton Mallet title was edited by Laura Linham, whose author portfolio describes her as editor of Shepton Mallet Nub News alongside Glastonbury Nub News and Wells Nub News, and whose bylines for the title include a history of Shepton Mallet Prison's most infamous inmates, Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
The Nub News network
Nub News was founded by Karl Hancock, a former City of London banker who spent 25 years in banking, together with Dean Waghorn, the programmer who had first developed the Nub idea and who became chief technology officer. The company officially launched in September 2018, initially as a local news aggregation service, and its first sites, for Honiton, Exmouth and Sidmouth in Devon, went live in January 2019. Hancock created the business because the closure, consolidation and regionalisation of local news had, in his view, left a vacuum in towns across the country. The network phased out aggregation in favour of original reporting only, keeping all content free to access. It grew to 26 hyperlocal brands with ten editors by December 2019, announced its 50th site in October 2020 and covered 68 towns by 2021. Former Nottingham Post editor Mike Sassi became editorial director in September 2021. The head office is in Crewe, Cheshire. Later strategy emphasised consolidation: the number of towns was reduced, a one-town-per-journalist principle was adopted for new launches, and the company forecast its first profit in 2026.
Editorial approach and standards
Shepton Mallet Nub News operates within the network's published editorial framework. Nub News states that its journalists adhere to the Editors' Code of Practice, place a strong emphasis on accuracy and balance, check facts before publication, and investigate and correct errors promptly when they are identified. New journalists receive training, and all user-generated copy is sub-edited before publication. The town sites each carry the network's submission facility, promoted through its Nub It branding, and the Shepton Mallet title's social media profile invites readers to post their news and events through that button under the slogan describing the service as your town in your pocket. Founder Karl Hancock characterised the model as replicating the town-centred local newspapers of a generation earlier, online rather than in print, and serving people who live in, work in or love their town. Journalists for the network generally work remotely and live in the towns they cover, and regional editors are tasked with sourcing unique, original content and growing their publications' digital audiences.
Coverage of Shepton Mallet
The site's listed remit is Shepton Mallet news and community stories, and its coverage reflects the town's distinctive mix of concerns: Shepton Mallet Town Council and Somerset Council matters, planning, policing, schools, local business, sport, heritage and community events. The town's famous prison, which closed in 2013 and reopened to the public as a visitor attraction, is a recurring subject; Laura Linham's history of the Kray twins' time as inmates is an example of the heritage features the title publishes alongside day-to-day news. Festivals and shows are another strand: coverage syndicated from the title described the launch of a Somerset snowdrop garden trail marking the tenth anniversary of the Shepton Snowdrop Festival, with gardens across the county taking part. The town's position as the closest town to the Glastonbury Festival and its proximity to the Royal Bath and West showground give it an events calendar of regional significance that the title reflects in its what's on coverage. The site also provides free event listings and local business features in the standard Nub News format.
The town it serves
Shepton Mallet is a market town and civil parish in Somerset, lying 16 miles south-west of Bath, 18 miles south of Bristol and 5 miles east of Wells. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 10,592 and the built-up area had a population of 9,645. The Mendip Hills lie to the north, the River Sheppey runs through the town, and the route of the Fosse Way, the main Roman road between north-east and south-west England, passes through it; there is evidence of Roman settlement. The medieval wool trade gave way to brewing in the eighteenth century, and the Anglo-Bavarian Brewery, built in 1864, was the first in England to brew lager before closing in 1921. The town remains noted for cider production and is the home of Babycham. Shepton Mallet Prison dates from 1610 and closed in March 2013, immediately before which it had been England's oldest prison still in use; during the Second World War it stored national records including Magna Carta and the Domesday Book. The town is the closest town to the Glastonbury Festival and near the Royal Bath and West of England Society showground.
Place in Somerset local media
Shepton Mallet's historic print title, the Shepton Mallet Journal, formed part of the Mid Somerset Series published from the Wells area, and its consolidation within large regional groups mirrored the pattern across Somerset. Nub News's intervention in the town was distinctive because it was led by journalists who had run those very titles: Tim Lethaby had edited the Journal, and Laura Linham began her career as a cub reporter on the Central Somerset Gazette before becoming chief reporter on the Mid Somerset Series and then court, crime and special investigations reporter for SomersetLive, resigning in June 2019 to freelance before editing Nub News titles. The Shepton Mallet site thus represents a digital-only continuation of locally rooted journalism by reporters formed in the town's traditional press. It has remained among the network's listed active titles in the company's regulatory statements, alongside Wells, Frome and Glastonbury, maintaining a dedicated Shepton Mallet news service at a scale the town could not easily sustain independently.
Business model
Shepton Mallet Nub News is funded by the Nub News sponsorship model. Revenue across the network comes from sponsorship by local businesses, client campaigns and job advertisements, with premium-tier advertising added later under which businesses pay for priority placement or social media promotion, while continuing to appear free of charge in what's on and shopping round-ups. The company has stressed that it does not rely on Google advertising revenue, does not focus on clicks, and aims to keep on-site sponsorship non-intrusive. Nearly two million pounds was raised from investors at the company's launch. Following its expansion phase, Nub News scaled back the number of towns it covered, refocused its sales operation on looking after incoming clients, and reported an expectation of £740,000 revenue in the year to September 2026 and a first profit of £7,500. Hancock has acknowledged the limits of the model, saying the company had learned that it could not succeed in any town regardless of size, and that getting both the timing and the journalists right was essential. For a town of Shepton Mallet's size, the shared network infrastructure is central to the title's viability.
Audience and continuing role
The Shepton Mallet title's social media presence, under the name Shepton Mallet Nub News, promotes local news and what's on in the Shepton Mallet area and directs readers to submit stories through the site. Across the network, Nub News has reported around three million page views per month across its combined sites in regulatory reporting, and around one million monthly unique users across its active towns in later reporting. The company's newsletters and app extend the reach of its town sites beyond the web pages themselves. Within Somerset, Shepton Mallet Nub News forms part of the Mendip cluster launched in 2019, whose titles share county institutions and an experienced editorial team. The publication continues to publish at sheptonmallet.nub.news, providing news and community stories for Shepton Mallet as a digital-only member of the Nub News network.
