The Bristol Cable is your city’s independent, investigative newspaper. 

But it’s not only that – it’s also a world-renowned, pioneering, national agenda-setting publication that you can sustain – and own – for just a few pennies a day.

We’ve proven ourselves over the last 8 years by providing excellent journalism, high value for members, and accountability to the people of Bristol, and as a result we now have thousands of paying member-owners.

But we need more members to be sustainable.

Producing our in-depth, quality investigative journalism is incredibly expensive, and where huge million-pound companies are continuing to fire journalists en masse to cut costs (while paying out millions to CEOs and shareholders), we want to pay our journalists better wages and hire more people. 

We are different: a workers co-op of local journalists committed to public interest news and community building, with a business model that doesn’t rely on clickbait, pop ups, or selling your private data.

So, we need as many members as possible, because it’s growing the membership that will make our business model sustainable not only in Bristol, but other cities too.

Member-owners get:

1. Each edition through your door (at membership of £3 or more)
2. Discounted or free entry to all our events
3. A vote on major decisions
4. Access to callouts that inform our reporting
5. The exclusive ‘Cable Insider’ newsletter
6. The opportunity to work with the Cable e.g. volunteering, venue hire, performing at our events
7. Membership in a local community of people committed to building a more equitable, transparent and just democracy

No matter how much you pay, we operate a one member, one vote policy.

You can pay as much as you want, but we know times are tough. As a guideline, we suggest the following:

If you’re a full time employee, we suggest one hour’s wages, e.g.:

• You earn £8 per hour = £8/month
• You earn £10 per hour = £10/month
• You earn £15 per hour = £15/month

If you’re a lower earner:

• Unemployed = £1-5/month
• Retired or part-time worker = £5-7/month

If you’re a higher earner (£50,000+pa) consider giving more on behalf of those who can’t:

• Suggested minimum = £20/month
• Very high earners = £100+/month

You can also choose to pay annually.

Our current operating costs are around £300,000 per year – or £6,000 a week. For producing quality journalism, this is an incredibly thrifty budget – but we’re proud of what we’ve managed to do with it so far!

We would like to spend more on community events, pay better freelance rates, and pay our dedicated, skilled staff better salaries.

Here’s a rough guide to where your money goes, and how much things cost:

• 1 member contributing £10/month = 1 freelance article per year
• 3 members contributing £10/month = 1 community event
• 100 members contributing £10/month = 1 month-long investigation
• 215 members contributing £10/month = 1 full-time salary
• 1,050 members contributing £10/month = 1 year-long investigation

To be fully funded by members:

• 3,333 members contributing £10/month = fully funded by members (thrifty budget)
• 6,250 members contributing £10/month = fully funded by members (ideal budget)

You can see how much of a difference members can make by encouraging others to join, or by increasing their monthly contribution.