Oldham deserves serious journalism

That is the simple idea behind The Oldham Owl. We are building an independent news organisation for the borough: one that reports carefully, explains clearly, investigates properly, and treats local public life as something that matters.

Oldham is not short of stories. It is short of sustained scrutiny that focuses on the political decisions that affect people’s homes, streets, schools, businesses, services, health, safety and futures. Some of those decisions are made in Oldham, some are made in Greater Manchester, and some are made in Whitehall or farther abroad. The consequences of those decisions land locally, while the explanations remain distant, technical or hidden.

We want to close that gap.

The Oldham Owl will cover the borough as it is. We are not interested in boosterism, nostalgia or conspiracy theories. Nor are we interested in parachuting in to write colour pieces only when something has gone wrong. Oldham needs journalism that stays with the story after the press release, after the outrage, after the meeting, after the election, and after everyone else has moved on.

The golden thread running through our journalism is evidence. We will use public documents, data, council papers, company records, court records, freedom of information requests, interviews, on-the-ground reporting and, where necessary, dogged persistence. We will ask basic questions and keep asking them when the answers are evasive. Who made the decision? What did it cost? Who benefits? Who loses? What was promised? What actually happened? What happens next? Who is responsible? What are the compromises?

The council budget is under severe pressure. For at least 16 years, the services that the council must legally provide – the absolute must-haves in local government, such as adult and children’s social care – consume more and more of a smaller amount of money granted from the UK Government.

Local media has become weaker just as local power has become more important. Greater Manchester institutions shape more of Oldham’s future, often without the same visibility or accountability. Questions of identity, race, class, housing, policing, education and opportunity are discussed crudely or not at all. The result is a public conversation that can feel angry, fragmented and ill informed.

We can do better than that.

Our values

The Oldham Owl is not party political. We will not be anyone’s faction, fan club or attack dog. We will criticise where criticism is justified, praise where praise is deserved, and correct ourselves when we get things wrong. We will give people the chance to respond to serious claims before publication. We will distinguish fact from comment, reporting from opinion and evidence from suspicion.

Our values are straightforward. Public money and public decisions should be accounted for. For our purposes, public decisions include those made by companies and charities – big and small – that affect people’s lives. Public bodies should be answerable to the people who rely on them and the people who delegate power to them. Powerful people should expect scrutiny. In our view, they should welcome it. We recognise that nobody is perfect – not even the Oldham Owl – and we want to understand the resource considerations and other problems that decision-makers have to deal with.

We believe that, more often than not, people and institutions perform better when under the scrutiny of engaged and inquisitive local media organisations.

Local democracy involves more than a vote every few years and a handful of slogans in between. It’s a daily, weekly and monthly conversation between those who make decisions and those who give them the power to do so.

September launch

We are launching properly in September. Before then, we will publish a number of holding pieces setting out the ground we intend to cover and the questions we think Oldham needs to confront. We are also beginning the slower work of research, source building, document gathering and investigation.

To anyone we contact in the course of that work: we are serious, we are independent, and we are prepared to listen.

To public bodies, elected representatives and other institutions: we will be fair, but we will not be deferential.

To readers: we will earn your trust article by article.

The name “Oldham Owl” reflects what we want this publication to be: watchful; patient; and sharp-eyed with a wide field of view, even in the dark.

Jason Flynn, co-founder

Will Holdaway, co-founder and Editor