Read all about it: Lewisham to get a new local paper

The centre of Lewisham from Lee High Road. Pic: Otto Normalverbraucher

 

A campaign to raise funds to launch a local paper covering stories in Lewisham has exceeded its target of £5,000.

Donations to get The Lewisham Ledger off the ground have reached £5,226 with the help of 105 supporters on Kickstarter, the online fundraising site. The initiative, started by two Catford residents, aims to publish the newspaper six times a year.

Each issue will focus on a different area of the borough. The first five will report on stories in Catford, Deptford, New Cross, Forest Hill and Brockley in turn.

Thom Townsend from Catford was the second person to donate to the online fundraiser. He told ELL that he backed the paper “to hold local power to account”.

The 33-year-old civil servant said: “London boroughs are, in some cases, bigger than cities in the UK, which have vibrant local press. Here the comparison is stark.”

Townsend hopes the Lewisham Ledger will provide “insight and analysis” into any big changes around the borough.

The idea for the new paper comes from the same team behind the Peckham Peculiar and the Dulwich Diverter, two other hyper-local publications focusing on community voices.

The Ledger is currently recruiting new team members and plans to start putting together their first issue for publication in May.

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