Millions of views for student-led Salford Now website as it hits new milestones

The website, which reports on news and sport from across the city, remains the sole Salford-focused online news outlet. Since students returned to University in September, it has had over 250,000 unique visits with over 5 million views on video content hosted on the channel’s Facebook page in the last month.

The website’s social media accounts on TikTok and Instagram also received hundreds of thousands of views over the last month (December to January) showcasing the breadth of interest in the content from a wide range of audiences.

It follows a growing trend of a rise in online readership for regional news outlets with sites for Nottinghamshire, Devon and Surrey all seeing growth between 50 to 344% in their online audiences over the last year.

Robin Brown, a Lecturer in Journalism, pitched the website, with the backing of other Journalism colleagues, back in 2017 to fill a real civic need for Salford, as the once-weekly Salford Advertiser had just ceased publication.

He said: “I saw a real opportunity for a Salford-dedicated news website that the University could be a part of. Salford is a great patch, it’s got a wide range of interesting areas, amazing sport on its doorstep and burgeoning industries. We wanted to own that space whilst enabling our students to get a real learning experience at the same time.

“Its heartening to see the hard work of our students pay off with the numbers and traction we are getting as the go-to news source in Salford. With the way that local newspapers are going, I really believe it’s something that all universities with a Journalism programme could be doing for their local area.

“On news days, we have up to 50 students just working on news content for Salford. It would be very rare to see those kind of numbers in any newsroom in the country right now.”

The growth in traffic in channels such as Facebook over the last few months has been attributed to a strategic increase in live reporting from key incidents across the city and tailored video content for the channel that keeps audiences up to date.

Alfie Mulligan, Web Content Editor Intern at Salford Now, has spearheaded this push for breaking news content, and has reported from incidents across Salford in the last few weeks.

He said: “The aim for the website has always been to be known as a news website and not a student website. As such, the students are putting a lot of work in to try and be as reactive as we can to breaking news and try and deliver as much as we can. We need to show that we are quick on the pulse for our readers.”

Alfie is a BA Journalism (Multimedia) graduate who has been writing for Salford Now since first starting at the University.

He added: “As a student, it was a great way to get your name out there and also to give a voice to all of Salford’s communities. Whilst there may be a lot of news organisations based in this area, no-one else elevates the unheard voices like we do.”

To contact the Salford Now journalists, please email now@salford.ac.uk.