The London Centric’s one-man reimagining of a sustainable local newspaper

Jim Waterson’s journalism career took an unexpected trajectory: in his twenties, Waterson was a reporter for legacy outlets in the UK, interviewing the Prime Minister and traveling to Washington D.C. to report on the American president. In his thirties, however, Waterson gambled by taking voluntary redundancy at The Guardian and starting his one-man venture, London Centric. 

The shift of the Evening Standard to the weekly format in September 2024 left London – a city of 9 million – without a daily newspaper. Seeing an opportunity to experiment with a new business model, Waterson, former media editor at The Guardian, set out to fill the gap. His approach was simple: “I’m not going to offer you an enormous amount [of content], but I’m going to do some really high-quality [reporting], and if you like it, you’re going to have to pay.”

The London Centric is based on Substack. Monthly subscription sits at £7,95 (€9,48), and an annual subscription costs £79,50 (€94.78). Waterson is also offering a 25% discount for the first year of subscription; it was initially intended for the first 150 paying subscribers, but was extended as a thank you when the London Centric reached the target within hours after launch.

Waterson said he had calculated the number of subscribers he would need for up to three years to make his business sustainable. “I hit the year 3 target in five months,” Waterson told The Fix, not without pride. “I brought the vast majority of them myself, through socials and word of mouth.” The London Centric has around 19,000 people on the email list, including 2,500 paying subscribers. The number suggests that the publication is making well over £100,000 (€120,000) in gross annualized revenue. 

Building an audience, one knock at a time

Waterson leveraged his existing online presence and the network from years in journalism. But what sets the London Centric apart is that its editor went way beyond digital outreach. Last Christmas, he hopped on his bicycle and delivered London Centric gift cards – physical tokens of subscription – just like Santa. 

“I sold gift subscriptions to people for Christmas and made a load of gift cards, but some people ordered them so late that I couldn’t put them in the post,” Waterson remembered about the occasion. “So I literally traveled around London on Christmas Eve, giving people the physical cards to give to their family.” Subscribers were astounded to see the man from the London Centric at their doorsteps. 

Readers are also able to directly contact Waterson – a prompt with his WhatsApp number is in the middle of every article. Waterson says readers love to see the creator taking the time to reply to feedback. 

All the effort was because Waterson did not want subscriptions as favors. He said he worked to create a readers’ base that would actually be invested in the updates they would be getting in their inboxes. 

“It’s been really fun building up a group of people who are readers, who send in tips and who like to tell their friends that they’re subscribing for something quite fun and different,” he said. 

A London-centric model

Waterson’s venture has now expanded enough to accommodate a freelance contributor. But he says he is weary of growing too fast, as it may damage the overall quality of reported pieces. 

“The model I’m doing is inherently personal,” he explained. “People subscribe for quite personal reasons, and they kind of want you.” That’s why Waterson would rather stick to putting out two or three articles a week and make sure that the author’s voice shines through, rather than bombard subscribers with daily titbits of London life. 

London life – Harry Potter themed shops evading taxes, dangers of riding Lime bikes or housing complexes infested with vermin” – remains at the heart of the London Centric. Waterson said it takes a lot of knocking on doors to produce his stories. “I think people like intriguing stories and tell them something about places that they live in,” he told The Fix. Sometimes, he admitted, he lures his readers to the intriguing bits of the story and puts a paywall halfway through – another tactic to nudge readers to pay for what they are really interested in. 

While Waterson seems thrilled with his daily adventure, he understands that the similar work – along with the effort needed to sustain it – is not for everyone.“I’ve managed to create a business model that can sustain me and another journalist, but this is not the model that would necessarily work on a massive scale, for a legacy newsroom.” 

For now however, London Centric is not aiming for a legacy status. Waterson sees it as an experiment which he thoroughly enjoys – a rare and refreshing sentiment in today’s journalism, too bloated with corporate demands. 

Readers seem to be open to this rarity too. Waterson said readers are supportive of the venture while the London Centric is still being built and perfected. 

“People are willing to back it and accept its flaws, “he said, “if you [manage to] take them along the ride with you and make them feel part of the community.”

Source of the cover photo: Tetiana Rzhaksynska via Pexels

---