About
Built differently, from the ground up
Modern Standard Media was founded to answer a simple question: what does serious local journalism look like when it’s built from scratch in 2023, rather than trying to save what existed before?
The model
Why we built it this way
Most local news organisations are trying to sustain something that was built for a different era — large teams, print revenue, advertiser relationships that no longer exist. We started with a blank sheet.
The result is a publishing model that treats accountability — not access — as its core editorial value. That uses AI as a production tool, not a content substitute. That builds direct relationships with readers rather than depending on platforms. And that is designed from day one to replicate across areas, not stay artisanal.
Lean editorial team. Daily publication. Professional standards. Exceptional engagement. That combination is the proof of concept — and it scales.
Credentials
Professional standing
PINF
Press Investigation and Non-Profit Forum. Network of serious independent journalism organisations across the UK.
Daily publication since 2023
Three stories every morning at 5am. Email delivered at 7am. No breaks, no missed editions.
Editorial standards
Source verification, right of reply, and a documented corrections policy on every story.
Registered in England and Wales
Modern Standard Media Ltd. London-based.
Accountability over access
We track what institutions do, not what they say. FOI requests, voting records, planning decisions — evidence built over months, not reported once.
Direct reader relationships
No algorithm between us and our readers. A subscriber chose to give us their email address. That trust is the product.
Built to replicate
Every system, every workflow, every template is designed to be replicated in the next area. Putney is one node in a growing network.
How technology serves journalism
AI expands what a journalist can do — it doesn’t replace what a journalist is
Most publishers are reaching for AI to produce more content, faster. We use it differently — to go deeper, find more, and do what journalism has always done best: put people at the heart of stories that matter within a few miles of their front door. The technology surfaces what manual research would miss. What happens next is the journalism itself — the questions, the conversations, the scrutiny and the analysis.
The result is coverage that people genuinely love. An NPS score of 76. Readers who act on what they read — visiting businesses, attending events, contacting their councillors. Click rates running at ten to twenty times the industry average. This is not an audience passively consuming content. It is a community actively engaged with what is happening around them.
Reads and analyses tens of thousands of pages of documents — council reports, planning applications, company filings, FOI responses — to surface stories buried in data
Pulls in datasets and draws comparisons across sources that would take a researcher days — spending patterns, planning trends, voting records over time
Identifies and sources expert opinion — academics, practitioners, affected parties — so the journalist can focus on the conversation, not the search
Monitors dozens of sources simultaneously — planning portals, committee agendas, FOI responses, council democracy portals, regulatory bodies — so the editorial team starts each day with a complete picture
The technology is the enabler. The journalism is the product. The people are the point.
Our publications
The network
Each publication covers a distinct community within southwest London, operating on the same editorial and commercial blueprint.
Contact
Get in touch
We’re a small team. Emails go directly to the right person.