Welcome to the Advent Calendar, day 11. The ink sheets are coming to East Leeds as the starting process for a new news service commenced.
It’s no secret, like many others, I am troubled by the news content featured about our area. It feels unbalanced and feeds into an unfairly negative image of Harehills. That’s not to say Harehills doesn’t have its problems, but it feels like it’s mostly the problems that get reported.
We feel that acutely, but other areas face similar issues, and some feel they get no attention.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen two excellent newspapers established in South and West Leeds, the excellent South Leeds Life and the fantastic West Leeds Dispatch. Over time, both have become print newspapers representing their areas, covering local events, celebrating their residents, addressing challenges, and presenting hopes and ambitions.
Back in May, Natalie Tharraleos, our fantastic community advocate and the instigator of many stories in this advent calendar, sent out an email asking if people in the area (East Leeds, so much more than Harehills), were interested in attending a meeting with the editors of South Leeds Life and West Leeds Dispatch so that we could consider establishing our own.
The meeting was convened at Catch Leeds Ark building in September, with people from all over. We heard from editors of South Leeds Life and West Leeds Dispatch, who talked about their stories of going from nothing to an online website to a full print newspaper over a period of years, the struggles and hard work that entails, but ultimately how they met success.
We discussed what areas we would like to consider for an East Leeds newspaper, East Leeds is a massive area with many distinct regions, so its important to define what we want to cover – though by no means was it to be final, as local needs might ebb and flow over time. The event was finished with a little guide to photography, using the ubiquitous mobile phone, which is to hand for any budding journalist. It also offered me the opportunity to finally meet the much-beloved goats of Catch and allowed me to get a photo of the much-loved goats of Catch.
It was a very good meeting, and following on, in October, John Baron, the editor of West Leeds Dispatch, was holding a course in local journalism, covering topics like interviewing, the legal and ethical side of local journalism, writing, etc… I couldn’t attend as my day jobs in the way. Still, I’ve read some of the documentation, which has been fascinating. I understand the people that have taken part have had a great time and learnt a lot.
Since then, we’ve had another meeting to progress the establishment of our newspaper, tentatively titled East Side Story (which is an amazing name), as plans are firmed up for when, how, and the form of the thing was discussed.
We can’t just jump straight into a print newspaper. It has to develop, so where it starts is important, whether across social media, blogs or a website, but as we start it will take shape, and we can all build from there.
It is coming, and everyone involved is excited to see this happen. I’m going to be getting involved myself; I’m a big believer in the power of journalism to inspire, promote and challenge change, champion the just and challenge the powerful. I’m not a journalist; in the traditional sense, Harehills Love is a community cheerleader, but it’s something I, and you, can aspire to become to better represent our communities to our neighbours and the wider world.
It’s not too late, nor will it ever be too late, for you to join us in this endeavour. I would suggest contacting Natalie Tharraleos (ntharraleos @ gmail.com ), to let her know you’re interested (until a dedicated communication channel is available for the project).
I’m very excited about this, and I can’t wait to see what’s written about Harehills and all the areas covered because we don’t always hear much about our neighbours, and they often don’t hear about the good things happening here.
Harehills ❤️ Love 
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