About The QT

The QT

The QT was a weekly online news magazine for the North East of England, launched on 7 February 2024 and closed after 24 issues in the summer of that year. It was founded by Brian Aitken, who had edited Newcastle's daily newspaper The Journal from 2003 to 2014, and it set out to provide subscription-funded regional journalism without advertising, pop-ups or clickbait headlines.

Published every Wednesday, The QT covered regional affairs, politics, business and culture, incorporating the arts website Cultured. North East. Despite growing subscriber numbers, the venture steadily lost money, and when its investors withdrew their funding it was unable to continue. Its short life, from February launch to closure after 24 editions, makes it a compact case study in both the ambition and the economics of independent regional news start-ups in Britain.

Origins and planning

The QT had a long gestation. Aitken's plans for a new quality digital title on his old North East patch were first reported in June 2023, and by the time the first edition appeared the project had been in preparation for more than eight months. During that period the team built the website, moved into an office, recruited staff and ran a pre-launch marketing campaign to sign up subscribers in advance.

The idea grew directly from Aitken's experience at The Journal, the Newcastle daily he edited for more than a decade. The QT was designed as an online newspaper for the same region, but built on opposite commercial foundations from most regional websites: instead of maximising page views for advertisers, it would charge readers directly and publish once a week in a deliberate, magazine-style rhythm.

Launch on 7 February 2024

The QT went live on Wednesday 7 February 2024, billed as a new voice for the North East. The first edition was made available free of charge so that potential subscribers could judge the journalism for themselves; from the following week, most content sat behind the subscription paywall. Its first lead story was an exclusive interview with the new chief constable of Northumbria Police about her plans to reshape the force, a choice that signalled the title's focus on regional institutions and public life.

At launch, Aitken wrote to subscribers expressing pride in the first edition and restating the promise that quality storytellers would tell quality stories worth paying for. The launch coverage in the trade press described a mix of news and long reads concentrating mainly on regional politics, business and culture.

The team

Aitken headed a small core team drawn heavily from his former newspaper. Sam Wonfor, a former Journal colleague, served as features editor. Simon Rushworth was associate editor, and David Whetstone, a long-standing arts and culture writer, was senior writer. A fifth core colleague at launch was Sara Jane March, described in launch reporting as a rising star, and the team was supported by a large pool of freelance contributors.

Before launch, The QT advertised for further editorial roles, including a regional affairs editor and a staff writer, with the aim of bringing the core editorial team to six. Contributors included several well-known North East journalists, among them former Northern Echo editor Peter Barron and former Newcastle Chronicle editor Paul Robertson, together with columnists and writers such as Tony Henderson, Dan Sheridan, Paul Linford, Arlen Pettitt, Bob Hudson and Chris Jackson.

The concentration of experienced regional journalists was central to the title's pitch. The QT was not a one-person newsletter but an attempt to recreate, in miniature and online, the kind of staffed newsroom that regional newspapers had historically provided.

Editorial coverage

The QT described itself as independent and politically neutral, offering issue-led campaigning journalism for the North East. Its stated coverage areas were regional affairs in the broadest sense: business, politics, devolution, health, the environment, education and inequality, together with features and commentary. Aitken pledged that it would be an independent campaigning voice for the region.

Culture held a particular place in the mix. The arts and culture site Cultured. North East formally became part of The QT at launch, continuing to produce in-depth coverage of the region's arts scene alongside its What's On listings. Unusually for a paywalled title, the What's On listings in the culture section remained free to access, giving non-subscribers a continuing reason to visit the site.

The weekly format shaped the journalism. Publishing a complete edition at noon each Wednesday, rather than a continuous stream of stories, allowed longer, more considered pieces, and positioned each edition as an event in itself rather than another contribution to a rolling news feed.

Business model and investment

The QT was funded initially by angel investment and intended ultimately to sustain itself from reader subscriptions and sponsorship. Its launch was backed by a six-figure investment round from angel investors; reporting at the time put the initial backing at seven angel investors. The investment round was led by entrepreneur and investor Fiona Cruickshank, who chaired the business, and it paid for development of the digital platform, recruitment of the core team and the partnership with Cultured. North East.

Subscriptions cost 7.99 pounds a month or 79.99 pounds a year. Before launch, some early supporters chose a Founding Member option priced at 150 pounds, paying a premium specifically to support quality regional journalism. Aitken was unapologetic about charging, arguing that the absence of intrusive advertising, pop-ups and clickbait was precisely why readers would need to pay, and pointing to market research suggesting enough people in the North East would do so to make the title viable.

That model placed The QT within a wider experiment in British journalism: whether readers who complain about advertising-heavy local news websites will pay directly for an alternative. The QT's answer, tested over 24 issues, was that some would, but not quickly enough.

Closure after 24 issues

The QT closed in the summer of 2024. In a weekly email newsletter to subscribers, Aitken announced that the 24th edition would be the last. He explained, in summary, that the venture had run out of money to pay its writers: subscriber numbers were heading in the right direction, but not quickly enough, and the title had been steadily losing money. The investors therefore pulled the plug, while Aitken said the parties had agreed to pause and continue exploring ways to raise further funds.

In the same message he publicly thanked Wonfor, Rushworth and Whetstone for their work week in and week out, and credited the wider pool of contributors and columnists. The announcement also carried a personal note: Aitken revealed that his father had died the previous week, at the age of 89.

Trade press coverage of the closure treated it as the end, for the time being, of a closely watched experiment. A former daily editor, a team of respected regional journalists and a clear reader-revenue proposition had not been enough to reach sustainability within the funding available.

Afterlife in Eyes & Ears North East

The QT's story did not end entirely with its closure. Aitken later published Eyes & Ears North East, a newsletter on Substack, in which material from The QT's archive continued to appear. Eyes & Ears began as a column within The QT itself, and the newsletter carried QT features in weekend editions drawn, as Aitken put it, from the magazine's vaults. Popular QT series, such as a photography feature, were republished for the newsletter's readers.

The first anniversary of Eyes & Ears on Substack was marked with editions built from QT archive articles, and Aitken noted that many readers had liked and missed the magazine. The newsletter, published on Fridays with additional weekend editions, kept the same promise of no obtrusive advertising, pop-ups or clickbait headlines, and later introduced optional paid subscriptions at a lower price than The QT's. In that form, at least part of The QT's readership and archive found a continuing home.

Place and identity

The QT was based in Newcastle upon Tyne and addressed the wider North East of England, a region whose politics, business and cultural life it aimed to treat as subjects in their own right rather than as footnotes to national news. Its coverage of devolution and regional affairs reflected a period in which the governance and identity of the North East were live public questions, and its founding team came from the region's established newspaper titles.

The batch metadata for this directory lists the title's city as Newcastle upon Tyne and its state or region as England, which matches its base and its North East remit. Its website address during publication was theqt.online, the domain Aitken used in correspondence with readers after the closure.

Significance

The QT matters to the record of British online news for three reasons. First, it was a serious attempt by a senior regional editor to build a new title on reader revenue alone, explicitly rejecting the advertising and clickbait model that dominates much local news online. Second, it assembled an unusually experienced team for a start-up, including former editors of three of the region's newspapers among its contributors. Third, its closure after only 24 issues, despite growing subscriptions, documented the narrow margin between audience growth and financial survival for independent regional ventures.

For this directory, the essential facts are these: The QT was a weekly, subscription-only online news magazine for the North East of England, founded by former Journal editor Brian Aitken, launched on 7 February 2024 with a core team including Sam Wonfor, Simon Rushworth and David Whetstone, backed by a six-figure angel investment round chaired by Fiona Cruickshank, published at 7.99 pounds a month with no advertising, incorporated Cultured. North East, and closed after 24 issues when funding was withdrawn, with its archive later continued in Aitken's Eyes & Ears North East newsletter.