In a statistical anomaly no one saw coming, least of all Rochdale – the Rochdale Times has racked up over 200,000 page views in a single month, proving that people will read local news, provided it’s wedged between headlines about life-sized giraffes and Oasis-related arrests.
Launched a mere four months ago in the smouldering wake of Rochdale Online’s sudden demise (cause of death: excessive apathy and a mild bout of capitalism), when a Warrington company saw some dollar signs thinking they can make money on advertising in a poverty stricken town, the Rochdale Times has already clocked nearly a million page views, allegedly. That’s roughly one for every time someone in Middleton’s asked, “Is that new phone mast working yet?”
Founders Karl Holbrook and Nick Fellows say the site was launched to provide a “community-first voice,” once you drive down the M62, which in Rochdale translates roughly to “a place to shout about potholes and share pictures of weird clouds over Milnrow.” Holbrook, whose CV includes leading newsrooms that probably had coffee machines more expensive than Heywood’s entire Christmas lights budget, called the response “phenomenal” and “humbling”, before presumably collapsing into a vat of forged analytics.
“We try not to shy away from the difficult stories,” said Holbrook who so far hasn’t learnt how to use spellchecker, “though we do tend to put them just below the articles about haunted chip shops and cardboard elephants.” Fellows added that the Rochdale Times is “a community asset”, presumably alongside the rusty trolley in the canal and the bloke who plays Wonderwall outside Morrisons.
Industry experts are baffled. “Most local news websites can’t even get their own mums to click anymore,” one said, “but Rochdale Times have managed it with nothing but gumption, civic pride, and at least four articles about angry pensioners on mobility scooters whilst ripping off local content from other news outlets”
The success arrives as most media brands struggle for oxygen in a world where Google now prefers to answer your questions with a sponsored ad for cat insurance. But Rochdale Times has defied the odds, proving once and for all that Rochdalians will support journalism, especially if it contains at least three mentions of a HMO, inexplicably large deficits in the council budget, or that dog that looks like the local MP.
As Rochdale Times approaches one million views, rumours suggest the next celebratory phase may involve launching a local cryptocurrency, “RochDosh”, or simply converting all future content into ASMR videos narrated by a man from Heywood.
In celebration, the Rochdale Times plans to release a limited-edition tea towel featuring their most-read headline: “Council denies claims Queen’s Park squirrels now armed.”
Holbrook concluded, “We’re not just reporting on Rochdale. We’re redefining it. One automatic page refresh at a time.”
