Aberdeen Live

About Aberdeen Live

Aberdeen Live was a digital news website covering the city of Aberdeen, published by Reach plc between January 2022 and 2026. Aimed at people who lived in the city and those planning to visit, it published daily news across local news, Scottish and UK news, traffic and travel, crime, education, health, history, jobs, politics and property. Launched with a ten-strong team under editor Paul Fisher, it was designed to go head to head with the city's established daily newspapers, the Press and Journal and the Evening Express. In September 2026 Reach plc announced the closure of Aberdeen Live along with two other online brands, KentLive and GalwayBeo, ending a four-and-a-half-year run. Its website at aberdeenlive.news served Aberdeen readers throughout its life.

Launch in January 2022

Aberdeen Live went live in the final week of January 2022, the latest in a series of city-focused news websites launched by Reach plc, the UK's largest commercial news publisher. The launch was reported by the trade press on 28 January 2022, with the site described as focusing on news and what's on in the city of Aberdeen. The timing formed part of a wider expansion of Reach's journalism in Scotland: the company announced more than thirty new jobs through a series of launches and revivals, including the first-ever online version of the Scottish Daily Express and the return of the football title Football Scotland. Reach's Scotland editor-in-chief David Dick said the expansion reflected the publisher's strong sense of what its readers wanted and its excitement at bringing more Scottish voices and insight to the fore.

Editorial team and newsroom

The site was edited by Paul Fisher, with Jon Hebditch serving as news editor and Katie Forbes as engagement producer, responsible for looking after the site's social media channels and building engagement within the city's community. The reporting team included Ciaran Shanks, previously a reporter with The Courier, alongside trainee reporters Keiran Fleming, Jamie Saunderson, Thomas Durham and Ruaraidh Britton. Ten journalists in total, including the editor, were taken on for the launch. The team communicated with readers under the Twitter handle @aberdeenlive_, using social media to distribute stories and engage the Aberdeen community directly.

Coverage across the city

Aberdeen Live's editorial brief was broad: daily stories covering Aberdeen news, Scottish news, traffic and travel, crime, education, health, history, jobs, politics, property and UK and world news. The site's tagline promised the latest news, events and sport, including breaking news across politics, crime and celebrity, with stories, updates and expert opinion. Like Reach's other city Live brands, it combined hard local news with service journalism and lighter what's-on content aimed at driving large online audiences. Its regional coverage extended across the city's neighbourhoods, from Bridge of Don and Bucksburn to Cove, Kingswells and Denmore, positioning itself as a paper for the whole of Aberdeen.

Taking on the city's newspaper establishment

The launch was explicitly framed as a challenge to the dominance of DC Thomson's two Aberdeen dailies, the Press and Journal and the Evening Express. Aberdeen had long been a stronghold of DC Thomson, whose titles commanded deep loyalty among local readers, and Reach's arrival introduced a new digital-first competitor into the market. The publisher expressed confidence that the model that had worked for its other online launches, including Edinburgh Live and Glasgow Live, could attract a new generation of online readers in the north-east. The competition played out across websites and social platforms, with both publishers vying for the attention of Aberdeen's news consumers.

Audience and digital footprint

During its years of operation Aberdeen Live built a substantial digital audience. Traffic estimates put the site at approaching 200,000 monthly visits, with a global web ranking in the low millions and a UK-focused readership. The site was characterised by a clean layout and intuitive navigation, with real-time updates, breaking news alerts and interactive content designed to foster community engagement. Like all Reach titles, it carried display advertising and offered marketing solutions to local and national brands, from digital display and newsletter advertising to content marketing and video, trading on Reach's claim to reach more than 38 million people a month across its online network.

Part of the Reach Live network

Aberdeen Live sat within Reach plc's growing network of city Live brands, which included Edinburgh Live, Glasgow Live and, south of the border, titles such as KentLive. The network shared a common publishing model: digital-only, high-volume local news, heavy use of social media distribution and search optimisation, and monetisation through advertising and branded content. The model had delivered large audiences for the publisher, but it also drew criticism from journalists' representatives over workloads and the relentless demand for content. Aberdeen Live's fate would ultimately be tied to the economics of that model as Reach reassessed its portfolio.

Closure announced in September 2026

On 16 September 2026 Reach plc announced that it would close three of its online brands, Aberdeen Live, KentLive and GalwayBeo, as part of a restructuring that removed around 220 editorial roles while creating more than 60 new ones. Chief content officer David Higgerson told staff that the company was in the middle of a mammoth shift in how audiences wanted content and journalism, and that investment had to be focused where audiences spent the most time and where revenue reflected the value of the work. He stressed that the decision was not a reflection of the work done on the titles or the commitment of their journalists, but was based on the company's market position in those areas. The announcement formed part of a pivot toward original journalism, distinctive brands, longer-form video and digital subscriptions, with active engaged time set to replace page views as the company's north-star metric.

Reaction from the journalists' union

The National Union of Journalists condemned the cuts, describing the closure programme as an act of self-sabotage. General secretary Laura Davison said that year after year of cuts had left Reach journalists deeply demoralised, with unsustainable workloads, unrealistic content demands and dedicated journalists living in constant fear of losing their livelihoods. The union argued that the continued cuts undermined Reach's own strategic pivot to digital subscriptions and original reporting, which its members had broadly welcomed. The company had cut more than 300 editorial roles the previous year, and further rounds of redundancies had followed in regional print production and editorial teams, alongside the closure of print sites at Watford and Saltire.

The wider Scottish expansion

Aberdeen Live did not launch in isolation. It was part of a coordinated expansion of Reach's Scottish journalism that also brought the first-ever online version of the Scottish Daily Express and the return of Football Scotland, which had closed in September 2019 after just nine months in business. An eight-strong team was assembled for the relaunched football title, while twelve new roles, including a head of live news and three politics writers, were created for the Scottish Express. Additional recruitment took place for the Daily Record, Edinburgh Live and Glasgow Live. The scale of the investment showed how seriously Reach took the Scottish market at the start of the decade, making the 2026 retreat, when Aberdeen Live closed alongside KentLive and GalwayBeo, all the more striking a reversal.

Legacy in Aberdeen's media landscape

Aberdeen Live's four-and-a-half-year run coincided with a period of intense change in local journalism, as publishers shifted from chasing page views to pursuing subscriptions, engaged time and distinctive brands. For its readers it provided a free, constantly updated source of city news, from breaking crime and traffic stories to history features and what's-on guides, and it forced the city's established titles to compete harder for digital audiences. Its closure, alongside KentLive and GalwayBeo, marked the end of Reach's experiment with a standalone Aberdeen digital brand, but the journalists it trained and the audience habits it helped form remain part of the city's media story.