Islington Tribune

About Islington Tribune

The Islington Tribune is a free, independent weekly newspaper covering the London Borough of Islington in north London. Founded in 2003 as a sister paper to the Camden New Journal, it has the highest circulation of the local papers in the borough and carries significant local influence through its high news content, investigations and campaigning journalism. Published by New Journal Enterprises from the group's Camden Town offices, it shares its sister title's co-operative ethos, its scepticism toward power and its commitment to remaining independent of the large newspaper groups.

Founding as a Sister Paper

The Islington Tribune was launched in 2003 by Eric Gordon, the founding editor of the Camden New Journal, off the back of the CNJ's success. Gordon — who had founded the Camden paper in 1982 out of a journalists' strike and remained its only editor until his death in 2021 — saw an opportunity to replicate the New Journal's independent, campaigning model in the neighbouring borough of Islington. Like its sister paper, the Tribune was established as a free weekly with a non-profit, staff-owned ethos, produced from the New Journal's offices at 40 Camden Road in Camden Town. From the outset it positioned itself as an alternative to the borough's other local papers, promising the same mixture of hard news, investigations and lively reader debate that had made the CNJ famous.

Editorial Character

The Tribune's journalism follows the New Journal template: local news and public affairs, community issues, crime and courts, housing, politics, business, education, culture and sport, all reported with an independent eye and a willingness to criticise the council and other public bodies. Its letters pages give Islington residents a prominent forum for debate, and its reporters have pursued investigations into planning decisions, housing developments and council spending. The paper's contributors have included Koos Couvée and Joe Cooper, and former reporters include Kim Janssen, Joel Taylor and Andrew Walker, who went on to work for the BBC, as well as former Camden New Journal deputy editor Andrew Johnson. Peter Gruner, an award-winning environment journalist who previously worked for the Evening Standard, wrote for the title until 2015.

The Margaret Hodge Scoop

In 2006, just three years after its launch, the Islington Tribune — together with its sister paper the Camden New Journal — broke a story of national significance. The papers revealed that government minister Margaret Hodge, the MP for Barking, had described the Iraq War as Tony Blair's biggest mistake. The story was picked up across the national press and broadcast media, and the Tribune's editor was interviewed on the BBC and Channel Four about the scoop. For a young free weekly, breaking a national political story demonstrated the New Journal group's capacity for serious political journalism and announced the Tribune as a paper to be taken seriously well beyond Islington's boundaries.

Circulation and Readership

The Islington Tribune is distributed free across the London Borough of Islington, covering neighbourhoods including Islington itself, Holloway, Highbury, Archway, Finsbury Park, Canonbury, Barnsbury and Clerkenwell. It has the highest circulation of the local papers in the borough, giving it a reach that rivals and exceeds its commercial competitors. Its main rival in the borough is the Islington Gazette, part of the Archant group. The Tribune's free distribution model — funded by advertising rather than cover-price sales — has allowed it to achieve mass penetration in one of London's most densely populated and politically active boroughs, home to a concentration of journalists, politicians and activists.

The New Journal Enterprises Group

The Islington Tribune is one of four publications produced by New Journal Enterprises, alongside the Camden New Journal, the Westminster Extra (formerly the West End Extra) and the arts magazine The Review. All are produced from the Camden Town office, sharing production, advertising, distribution and digital infrastructure while maintaining separate editorial identities. The group's co-operative, staff-owned structure — with its founding principles of common ownership recorded in its Articles of Association — has insulated the Tribune from the consolidation that has swept the rest of the regional press. The titles are now edited by a team led by former CNJ deputy editor Richard Osley, who succeeded Eric Gordon after his death in April 2021, and Tom Foot edits the Westminster Extra.

Surviving Industry Pressures

The Tribune has shared in its sister paper's remarkable resilience. The New Journal group made it through the Covid-19 pandemic without cutting jobs or editions of either the CNJ or the Tribune, and celebrated the CNJ's 2,000th edition in November 2020. The group's management has considered creating a board of community trustees to preserve the titles' founding mission. In September 2026, the entrepreneur and Labour donor Dale Vince agreed a rescue funding package for the group behind the Camden New Journal, Islington Tribune and Westminster Extra — titles owned by the company's staff as a co-operative — describing regional newspapers as the bedrock of democracy and praising the group's campaigning and investigative reporting. The intervention underscored both the titles' financial fragility and the high regard in which their journalism is held.

Campaigns and Community Role

Like the Camden New Journal, the Tribune has thrown its weight behind local campaigns, from opposing hospital closures to scrutinising major planning applications and defending council housing. Its reporting on the borough's rapid gentrification, its nightlife economy, its schools and its public spaces has given residents a paper that treats local democracy as seriously as national politics. The paper's willingness to challenge Islington Council — one of London's most prominent Labour-run authorities — has occasionally brought it into conflict with the borough's political establishment, but it has also won it a loyal readership that values an independent voice.

Training Ground for Journalists

Like its sister paper, the Islington Tribune has served as a training ground for generations of young journalists. The New Journal group's newsrooms have long been known for giving trainee reporters real responsibility early — covering courts, council meetings and breaking news in one of London's most demanding patches. Former Tribune reporters have gone on to careers at the BBC, national newspapers and broadcasters, carrying with them the group's ethos of shoe-leather reporting and scepticism toward official statements. Eric Gordon was celebrated as a mentor to generations of reporters, and his successor Richard Osley has spoken of the paper as a collective enterprise rather than a one-man band, with staff across news, production, sales and distribution putting years into the titles. The group's job advertisements make a point of seeking reporters who bring in their own original stories rather than scraping social media — a statement of editorial values that reflects the titles' commitment to original local journalism. In an industry where entry-level opportunities in local news have dwindled, the Tribune's continued hiring is itself a contribution to the future of the press.

Online Presence

The Islington Tribune publishes at islingtontribune.com, where its weekly edition appears as an e-edition alongside breaking news, sport and local listings. The website is integrated with the Camden New Journal's digital platform, giving readers access to the group's shared arts coverage in The Review as well as borough-specific news. The paper maintains an active social media presence, where its stories circulate among Islington's engaged residents. For a borough at the heart of London's political and cultural life, the Tribune remains what its founder intended: a free, independent newspaper that answers to its readers rather than to distant shareholders.