The Hull Story
The Hull Story is an independent news title for Kingston upon Hull, in England, published as a daily website and a free monthly printed newspaper. It was created by former Hull Daily Mail journalists who wanted to build a credible alternative media platform for their city, and it has become one of the best-known examples in the United Kingdom of reverse publishing: a title that began life in digital and magazine form and then moved into print, rather than the other way round. Its printed edition, launched in December 2023 with a print run of 10,000 copies, is distributed free across Hull, and its coverage of the summer riots of 2024 won the title a national front-page award.
Founders and their backgrounds
The Hull Story was founded by journalists who had spent much of their careers on Hull's long-established daily paper. Rick Lyon spent fourteen years at the Hull Daily Mail in roles including crime reporter, chief reporter and news editor, and he had won regional press awards during his time there, including Yorkshire Journalist of the Year. Simon Bristow, who became co-editor of The Hull Story alongside Lyon, was a former Hull Daily Mail court reporter who had also previously worked for The Yorkshire Post. Another of those behind the original project was Kevin Shoesmith, an award-winning former chief reporter at the Mail.
Lyon set out the founders' aims at the start: the title would champion the city's heroes and good causes, but would not shy away from difficult issues, and its aim was to report on real issues affecting the people of Hull and the region, as well as telling the stories of the people who make the city what it is. That combination of civic pride and independent scrutiny has remained the title's stated identity in both its digital and print forms.
First appearance as a magazine in 2019
The Hull Story first appeared in November 2019, when a group of former regional daily journalists launched it as a free monthly news magazine on the Hull Daily Mail's own patch. The project was self-funded, and copies were distributed in shops, cafés, bars, salons, hotels and other establishments throughout the city and the surrounding area. The founders said the monthly title would offer a mixture of news, opinion, business, politics, campaigns and the arts.
The first edition included a feature on a major drive in the city to tackle climate change, a tribute to a celebrated Normandy veteran, and a feature on two Hull City football fans who had launched an online archive of matchday programmes. Lyon reported that the reaction to the launch had been overwhelmingly positive, and that word had spread quickly, helped by social media — evidence, he argued, that there was demand for this type of product. Even at that early stage, the team planned to increase pagination and circulation and to develop the website in the following weeks.
Rebirth as a digital title in 2020
The Hull Story took its present form in 2020, when Simon Bristow and Rick Lyon set it up as a digital-only publication. Industry coverage of the later print launch consistently dates the current title to that 2020 relaunch, describing it as a website run by the two co-editors. The daily news website, at thehullstory.com, became the title's main platform, publishing local news, business coverage and Hull City football coverage, and building an audience of readers and financial supporters in the city.
The digital title positioned itself explicitly against the contraction of Hull's traditional media. Its founders argued that, in Hull as in many other British cities, the local media landscape was changing and many traditional outlets were contracting, and that this was bad for local communities, bad for local businesses and bad for local democracy. The Hull Story's founding proposition was that local news matters, and that an independent, locally owned title could help fill the gap.
The move into print in December 2023
In December 2023 The Hull Story made the transition to print. The first edition of its free monthly newspaper was published early that month with an initial print run of 10,000 copies; the launch issue ran to thirty-two pages and was printed by Mortons Print of Horncastle. The paper was made available on news stands at key locations with high footfall across the city, including shopping centres, community hubs and libraries, and hundreds of copies were also delivered directly to the homes of housebound residents.
Bristow explained the reasoning in terms of access as much as nostalgia. As well as wanting to share the title's content more widely, the newspaper was launched because there is digital poverty in Hull and not everyone has access to a smartphone or computer. The team committed to making it a free title so that it could reach people across the city, whatever their circumstances, and, as former print journalists, they also noted that reading a newspaper can simply be a nice thing to do. The monthly paper was designed to run alongside the daily website, with the two platforms complementing and enhancing each other.
Reception and community support
The print launch was welcomed by prominent figures across Hull. The leader of Hull City Council, Mike Ross, applauded the move and agreed that the shrinking local media landscape was bad news for local democracy, while the council's chief executive said he was looking forward to reading the monthly newspaper. Hull East MP Karl Turner wished the title good luck and thanked it for its local and impartial journalism, and Emma Hardy, MP for Hull West and Hessle, described it as good news for local democracy, business and events. The announcement post on social media attracted more than 55,000 impressions.
Readers backed the title financially as well. The Hull Story runs an online Patrons scheme under which readers sign up to support the platform for £2.50 a month, receiving a regular e-newsletter and exclusive access to an Editor's Journal. Bristow and Lyon reported that, since the launch of the newspaper, the number of Patrons had doubled and website traffic had also significantly increased — an indication that print was recruiting supporters for the digital title as well as the reverse.
Contributors and coverage
The Hull Story's journalism is produced by its two co-editors with a team of freelance contributors drawn largely from the city's experienced press corps. They include Angus Young, a local politics and history reporter who joined after leaving the Hull Daily Mail following thirty-nine years' service; business and features writer Phil Ascough; music journalist Russ Litten; international affairs columnist Paul Knott; arts columnist Vicky Foster; and Hull City correspondent Sam Hawcroft, who also acts as production editor.
The content mix covers local news and features, business, and Hull City football, alongside the people-focused reporting that the site publishes daily — stories about charities, volunteers, community organisations and the institutions of the city, from its maritime heritage to its grassroots sport. The print edition carries the same broad brief, with a focus on local news and features, and the title's stated aim for both platforms is to inform, engage, entertain and nourish its readers.
Award-winning front page on the 2024 riots
The Hull Story's most prominent recognition came for its coverage of the disorder that affected Hull, as it did other British cities, in the summer of 2024. Its front page headlined “Disgrace, Resilience, Justice” was voted the best front page of 2024 by readers of the journalism website Hold the Front Page, winning 41 per cent of the votes in the annual poll, in which more than 1,000 readers took part. It finished well ahead of the Sheffield daily The Star's front page marking the fortieth anniversary of the Battle of Orgreave, which took 26 per cent, and the Bristol Post's entry, which took 10 per cent.
The result was a notable success for a title that had only begun publishing in print the previous January, and the same front page was also nominated for Front Page of the Year at the Regional Press Awards. For a two-editor independent title, the win placed The Hull Story's print journalism ahead of long-established regional dailies in a public vote.
Significance
The Hull Story is significant less for its size than for its direction of travel. At a time when local newspapers across Britain have been closing print editions and retreating online, it did the opposite, using a reader-funded digital base to support a free monthly print run of 10,000 copies aimed deliberately at residents whom digital-only publishing leaves behind. Its founders' argument — that contracting local media damages communities and local democracy, and that a free, quality local title can still find an audience and paying supporters — has been borne out by the growth of its Patron scheme, the welcome from the city's civic leadership, and national recognition for its print front pages.
