The Exchange

About The Exchange

The Exchange is a Leeds-based digital news title covering business, politics and culture in Yorkshire, part of the Mill Media network of city publications. Founded by Joshi Herrmann — who previously founded The Mill in Manchester in June 2020 — it employs around 25 journalists and has built a substantial paying readership: by October 2026 it reported 200,000 registered readers and 15,000 paying subscribers. Its investors include Sir Mark Thompson and Nicholas Johnston, and in October 2026 it received a £100,000 grant from the Postcode Lottery. Visit the official website at theexchange.news.

History and founding

The Exchange was founded by Joshi Herrmann as the Leeds edition of the Mill Media network — the group of city-based digital news titles that began with The Mill in Manchester in June 2020. Herrmann's model, proven in Manchester, was slow, high-quality local journalism funded by subscriptions: long-form reporting, investigations and features, delivered by email newsletter, in cities whose traditional local news had hollowed out. The Exchange applied that formula to Leeds and Yorkshire, building a newsroom of around 25 journalists — an extraordinary number for a local news start-up — and a readership that made it one of the most successful subscription local news ventures in Britain.

Ownership and funding model

The Exchange is part of Mill Media, the network of city titles founded by Joshi Herrmann. Its investors include Sir Mark Thompson — the former BBC director-general and New York Times chief executive — and Nicholas Johnston, the former Axios chief executive: a roster of backers that signals the industry's belief in the model. In October 2026 the title received a £100,000 grant from the Postcode Lottery, adding philanthropic support to its commercial base. The core funding, however, is reader revenue: 15,000 paying subscribers (as of October 2026) provide the subscription income that sustains the 25-strong newsroom.

Editorial focus and coverage areas

The Exchange covers Leeds and Yorkshire with the depth its subscriber model demands: investigations into local power — councils, developers, public bodies — alongside business reporting, political analysis, culture writing and long-form features on the region's life. Its journalism follows the Mill Media philosophy: fewer stories, better reported; the analytical depth of a quality Sunday paper applied to a single city region. The title's business coverage reflects Leeds' status as the North's financial and professional centre, while its political reporting scrutinises the devolution era's new power structures.

Notable leadership and journalists

The Exchange was founded by Joshi Herrmann, whose Mill in Manchester pioneered the UK's subscription local-news revival and whose confrontations with established media figures — including his noted editorial exchanges with rival publishers — made him one of the industry's most discussed entrepreneurs. The title's 25 journalists form one of the largest local newsrooms assembled by a start-up in recent British history, giving it reporting capacity that rivals the hollowed-out legacy titles it competes with.

Audience and reach

The Exchange reported 200,000 registered readers and 15,000 paying subscribers in October 2026 — figures that place it among the most successful digital local news subscriptions in the UK. Its audience is Leeds and Yorkshire's engaged citizens: professionals, civic leaders, and readers willing to pay for quality local journalism. The subscriber base's willingness to pay — the hardest metric in local news — validates the Mill Media proposition.

Business model

The Exchange operates a subscription-first model: free registered access draws readers in, with premium journalism reserved for the 15,000 paying subscribers whose fees fund the newsroom. Investor backing (Thompson, Johnston) provided the launch capital; the Postcode Lottery's £100,000 grant (October 2026) added philanthropic support; and advertising and partnerships provide supplementary revenue. The model's logic is that quality local journalism is a premium product worth paying for — a direct challenge to the free, ad-funded, clickbait-driven economics that destroyed legacy local news.

Digital platforms and newsletters

The Exchange is a digital-native, newsletter-first publication: its journalism is delivered primarily by email, the format that built The Mill's Manchester audience. The website archives and extends the newsletter content, and social media promotes stories to wider audiences. The newsletter model creates a direct, habitual relationship with readers — the foundation of subscription conversion.

Awards and recognition

The Exchange's investor roster — Sir Mark Thompson, Nicholas Johnston — is itself a form of recognition, signalling that some of the global media industry's most experienced leaders believe in the model. The Postcode Lottery grant further validates its civic value. Within the industry, the Mill Media network is the most closely watched experiment in British local news, and The Exchange's Leeds numbers are central to the case that subscription local journalism can work at scale.

Community and industry role

The Exchange matters beyond Leeds as proof of concept: that a city will support 25 journalists doing serious local journalism if the journalism is good enough to pay for. Its 15,000 subscribers represent a direct popular vote for quality local news — and a rebuke to the idea that readers won't pay. For Yorkshire's civic life, the title provides the sustained scrutiny of power — councils, developers, combined authorities — that the region's democracy needs.

Outlook

The Exchange continues to grow its Leeds and Yorkshire readership, with its subscriber base, investor backing and lottery grant providing a stable foundation. As the Mill Media network expands to further cities, The Exchange's experience — building a 25-strong newsroom and 15,000 paying subscribers from scratch — offers the template. For local journalism, it remains the most important experiment in Britain.

The Mill Media model and the subscription bet

The Exchange embodies Joshi Herrmann's wager on the future of local news: that the industry's collapse wasn't caused by readers abandoning journalism, but by journalism abandoning readers — chasing clicks with low-quality content instead of earning subscriptions with high-quality reporting. The Mill's Manchester success suggested the wager could pay; The Exchange's 200,000 registered readers and 15,000 paying subscribers in Leeds suggest it scales. The model's elements — newsletter-first distribution, long-form investigations, a premium subscription tier, and a newsroom large enough to do serious work — invert every assumption of the failed ad-funded local news era. Its backers, from Sir Mark Thompson to the Postcode Lottery, span the commercial and philanthropic worlds, reflecting a growing consensus that quality local journalism is civic infrastructure worth funding. Whether the model can sustain 25 journalists indefinitely on 15,000 subscriptions remains the open question — but The Exchange has already proved more than the sceptics predicted, and its progress is watched across the industry as the leading indicator of local news's future.

The Exchange's October 2026 milestones — 200,000 registered readers, 15,000 paying subscribers, the £100,000 Postcode Lottery grant — represent the coming-of-age of the Mill Media model in Leeds. The subscriber figure is the critical one: 15,000 people paying for local journalism is a direct popular vote that the product is worth it, and the revenue that sustains a 25-strong newsroom. The investor roster — Sir Mark Thompson, the former BBC director-general and New York Times CEO, and Nicholas Johnston, the former Axios chief executive — signals that the industry's most experienced leaders see the model's potential. The Postcode Lottery grant adds philanthropic validation of the title's civic value. Founder Joshi Herrmann's journey — from The Mill's June 2020 Manchester launch through the network's expansion — has made him the defining entrepreneur of Britain's local-news revival, and The Exchange is the model's most ambitious provincial application: a full-scale newsroom, built from scratch, in a city whose legacy local news had hollowed out. The 25 journalists give the title a reporting capacity that changes what's possible: sustained investigations, deep business coverage, serious political scrutiny — the journalism that makes local democracy work. Whether 15,000 subscriptions can indefinitely sustain 25 journalists remains the open question, but the trajectory — from launch to 200,000 registered readers in a few short years — suggests a model still accelerating. For Leeds, the result is already transformative: a city with a newsroom worthy of its ambitions.