The Bradfordian
The Bradfordian is a free newspaper and news website serving the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It was launched in September 2013 as a fortnightly printed newspaper distributed to 55,000 homes and businesses across the city, and it made its name with an unusual editorial promise: it billed itself as the United Kingdom's first "good news only" regional newspaper, reporting only stories it regarded as positive. Founded under publishing director Naz Hussain, a former journalist on Bradford's daily Telegraph & Argus, The Bradfordian set out to counter what its founders saw as an excess of bad news about the city by concentrating on community spirit, local achievement and the people working to improve Bradford. The title continues online at thebradfordian.co.uk.
Launch and concept
The Bradfordian was launched in September 2013, at a time when Bradford's media scene was dominated by the Newsquest-owned daily Telegraph & Argus. It was one of a cluster of independent publishing start-ups in the city in that period, following the free paper Asian Sunday, which had been launched in Bradford in 2011 and was then expanding with a London edition. The Bradfordian's difference was its editorial rule. Where a conventional regional newspaper leads on crime, conflict and civic problems, The Bradfordian reported only positive news: community projects, business successes, charitable work, grassroots sport, arts and culture, and the everyday achievements of Bradford people.
The launch attracted attention in the media trade press precisely because the claim attached to it was so distinctive — that it was the UK's first "good news only" regional newspaper. Its first issue ran to 32 pages, and the response was strong enough for its publishers to plan an increase in pagination of half as much again, to 48 pages, soon after launch. Publishing director Naz Hussain told the trade press that feedback from businesses, organisations and the council had been overwhelming, and that the newspaper was about community spirit and highlighting the positive things that happen in the city. Many people, he said, were tired of bad news, and he believed every city should have a newspaper like it.
The thinking behind "good news only"
Hussain's pitch for the paper rested on a particular reading of Bradford's position. He acknowledged that Bradford, like any city, has issues and problems, but argued that it also has a core of dedicated, law-abiding citizens who care about their city and want to see positive outcomes — and that this majority was poorly served by news coverage that dwelt on the negative. The Bradfordian was built for those readers. Its proposition was not that problems did not exist, but that the positive activity of the city — new youth projects, apprenticeships, independent shops opening, charities and community groups at work — deserved a publication of its own, and that such a paper could help foster pride in the place.
That founding rationale continued to define the title more than a decade later. In an appeal addressed to Bradford's business community, published on its website in the autumn of 2025, the paper restated its purpose in almost the same terms as at launch: in a city too often defined by its problems, The Bradfordian was set up to share positive news about local organisations, community groups, charities, grassroots sport, arts and culture, and the small wins that rarely make the headlines.
Distribution and format
As launched, The Bradfordian was a free fortnightly newspaper delivered to 55,000 homes and businesses across Bradford — a distribution that placed it, in reach, among the most widely circulated printed products in the city. Free delivery was essential to its concept: a paper whose mission was to lift a city's view of itself needed to arrive through letterboxes whether or not readers chose to buy a newspaper. Its 32-page launch format was substantial for a free title, and the planned expansion to 48 pages reflected early advertiser and reader demand.
The title's contact base was in the city centre, at 18 East Parade, in Bradford's Little Germany district — the historic merchants' quarter near the city centre — with the paper promoting its good news brief through its directory listings and its website. A digital edition of the paper was also made available online; an issue dated January 2014, labelled Issue 1 for that year, was published in digital page-turning format in February 2014, showing the title carrying its print product into digital form from its first months. The paper also maintained a social media presence, including its @TheBradfordian account.
Place in Bradford's media landscape
The Bradfordian's position in its market is best understood in relation to the Telegraph & Argus, the city's paid daily, for which its publishing director had previously worked. The T&A, owned by Newsquest, is the comprehensive news provider for Bradford — courts, crime, council and breaking news included — and in later years it introduced a digital paywall, limiting readers to a set number of free articles a month. The Bradfordian occupied the opposite niche: free at the point of delivery, and selective by design. It did not attempt to replace the daily's record of the city's difficult stories; it presented itself as the complement to it, the paper that recorded what was going right.
That positioning also made The Bradfordian a participant in a wider debate about local news values. Its launch was reported nationally within the media industry because it posed a question other publishers were asking in different ways: whether audiences alienated by relentlessly negative coverage could be won back by a more constructive approach. The Bradfordian was an early and unusually pure example of what would later be widely discussed as constructive or solutions-focused journalism, applied not to a single story but to an entire newspaper.
The title online and its funding challenge
Over time, like many free print titles, The Bradfordian's centre of gravity shifted towards its website, thebradfordian.co.uk, where it publishes positive news about Bradford and the district on a continuing basis. The title describes its web mission as spreading positive news about local businesses, celebrating the people of Bradford and promoting the city's achievements, curating stories from uplifting accounts of local entrepreneurs to reports of community initiatives and charitable endeavours. It has also supported community cultural projects in the city, including sponsoring the website development of Fashion Fiesta, a Bradford community fashion event, as a long-standing supporter.
The move online brought the funding problem that faces all free local news. In its 2025 appeal to local businesses, the paper disclosed that in October 2025 alone it had published 99 positive news articles about Bradford and the district, while earning just £2.34 in advertising revenue from its website in the same month — a figure that did not come close to covering even the cost of running the site, let alone the time spent speaking to local organisations, writing and editing stories and maintaining the technology behind it. Its response was to ask Bradford firms to support the title directly by joining a Bradford Business Directory, in return for visibility to potential clients, so that The Bradfordian could remain free to read and open to everyone in the district. The appeal is a revealing document of independent local publishing economics: a title with a loyal civic purpose and a demonstrable output of local journalism, sustained not by a cover price or a large publisher but by the willingness of its own business community to pay for the good news it wants to see.
People and contact
The Bradfordian's founding figure was its publishing director, Naz Hussain, whose background was in the city's established press: he had previously been a journalist at the Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Directory listings for the title recorded its base at 18 East Parade, Little Germany, Bradford, with the telephone number 01274 722644 and a contact email address, goodnews@thebradfordian.co.uk, that reflected its editorial brief. The paper's public identity was consistently presented in those terms — a Bradford address, a Bradford team and a single-minded focus on good news from the city.
Print and digital editions
In print, The Bradfordian appeared fortnightly, and its publishers moved early to present the printed paper in digital form as well: the January 2014 edition, labelled Issue 1, was published online in a page-turning digital format in February 2014. As the economics of free print distribution tightened across the industry, the title's website became its principal platform, publishing positive news about Bradford and the district continuously rather than fortnightly. The print-era identity — the "good news only" promise, the community focus and the Bradfordian name — carried over intact into the online title.
Assessment
The Bradfordian remains a distinctive experiment in British local media. Launched in 2013 with a fortnightly print distribution of 55,000 copies — a scale few independent start-ups attempt — it staked its identity on a single, simple editorial rule and kept to it: through its print years and into its present life as a free online title, it has reported only the positive side of its city. Its survival over more than a decade, through the contraction of local newspaper economics and into an era in which its main challenge is the modest advertising yield of a local website, testifies both to the appeal of its idea and to the persistence required to sustain independent local journalism. For Bradford, it has provided a running record of the city's community life, enterprise and culture that no other publication was set up to keep.
