Explained: Why is our news behind a paywall?

The Stray Ferret is unusual in that it doesn’t give free access to our articles, but instead asks for you to subscribe.

Why do we do this, especially when you can ‘get this news anywhere for free’ (you can’t, by the way).

When we launched back in 2020 we adopted an advertising only model, but it was not enough to meet our costs. A new website and app was launched in conjunction with a subscription fee.

We’ve watched as other local news organisations have cut the number of journalists, lowered the quality of the stories they publish and covered pages with pop-up ads which make it unreadable. We didn’t want to do this.

By paying a small fee you are investing in a high-quality news service. By having minimal adverts, we can keep the subscription price to readers as low as possible.  

Subscribers also benefit from exclusive discounts from local businesses which aim to cover subscription costs and will not be offered anywhere else – our current monthly deal (for August) is a free bottle of wine at West Park. This is worth £26 – over half the cost of an annual subscription.

Since 2020, we have taken pride in covering the stories that matter most to residents across Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Masham, Pateley Bridge and all the areas between.

We passionately believe that a quality, local news service for the area provides an important, trusted platform for debate and information for local people.

We do not ask for your money lightly, we understand times are tough for everyone, but we feel this is the only way to serve the area to the standard it deserves.

We have offices in Harrogate town centre, so we can help anyone who has problems with signing up to the subscription service, the app or newsletter.

We have also now pledged to support a local young person by putting them through a journalism apprenticeship – but we can only do this when we reach 4,000 subscribers. Your subscription pays for much more than just news.

You can subscribe to the Stray Ferret for £4.99 a month, or you can pay annually at £49.99 which would save you about £10 a year. That equates to around 1p per article.

We hope you subscribe - by doing so, you will be investing in quality, local journalism.