The_Local

<i>The Local</i>

The Local

Digital news publisher

This article is about the online news publisher. For the British convenience store, see First Quench Retailing. For the 2008 film, see The Local (film).

The Local is a multi-regional, European, English-language digital news publisher with local editions in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Each site, while alike in appearance, has separate editorial teams, each focused on its respective market.[1]

Quick Facts Type of site, Owner ...

Coverage is purely domestic in each country, and focuses on news and information for an immigrant or expat audience. The parent company The Local Europe AB, has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.[2]

History

The Local was founded in Stockholm in 2004 by Paul Rapacioli, formerly a director of reed.co.uk[3] and managing editor James Savage, formerly a radio journalist and PR consultant. Rapacioli was managing director from 2004-2018.

The original Swedish edition began in early 2004 as a weekly email newsletter which Paul Rapacioli started sending to other students in his "Swedish for Immigrants" class. The first news site was launched in Sweden in August 2004. The German edition was launched in 2008 and Swiss edition in 2011. In 2013 the company opened offices in France, Spain and Italy. By January 2015 the company claimed to have over 4.5 million readers per month.[4] James Savage succeeded Paul Rapacioli as managing director in 2018.

Shareholders include venture capital firm CSB Capital, the 6th AP Fund and Almi Invest.[5]

In 2009, The Local acquired the website Toytown Germany from its founder, James Pearn, who was subsequently hired by The Local as their CTO. Pearn's employment was subsequently terminated in 2021, following a public dispute between forum members and the moderation team (headed by Pearn) over rampant COVID misinformation.[6][7] In 2010, following the death of its creator, The Local acquired Englishforum.ch, a chat forum for English-speaking expatriates in Switzerland.[8]

In January 2010 The Local acquired the thelocal.com domain name from First Quench Retailing, a UK alcohol retailer which went into administration at the end of 2009.

The Local launched a Client Studio in 2014[9] to produce sponsored content (native advertising).

In late 2017, The Local launched a subscription model (marketed as membership), beginning with the Swedish edition.[10] Throughout 2018, The Local's membership programme was rolled out to other editions including Germany,[11] France,[12] Italy,[13] and Spain.[14] By early 2022 The Local had over 50,000 members.[15]

In 2021 the company had a turnover of 33.7 million SEK and a profit of 2.6 million SEK.[16] In 2022, the company suffered a decrease in turnover of 36.8%; this fiscal year also included major cutbacks in staffing.[17]

In February of 2024, both the English Forum for Switzerland and the German Toytown forum were closed, with moderators receiving notice that the company had determined that server costs were too high.[18]

Awards

The Local's Swedish edition was nominated in 2009 as Swedish Digital Newspaper of the Year ('Årets Dagstidning Digitala Medier'), as part of media magazine Medievärlden's annual newspaper awards.[19]

In 2018, The Local's Swedish edition was named Digital Publisher of the Year Award in the Popular Press category by the Swedish Magazine Publishers Association (Sveriges Tidskrifter).[20]

The Local's Client Studio received the bronze award in the Best Use of Online Media category at the 2018 Native Advertising Awards in Berlin.[21]

The Local's CEO James Savage received the Swedish Magazine Publishers' Associations Grand Prize (Sveriges tidskrifters stora pris) in 2021.[22]

References

  1. [1]
    The Local:About us
  2. [2]
    "Toytown Germany Imprint". Toytown Germany. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  3. [3]
    Paying to Look Good at Work. BBC News. August 29, 2002
  4. [4]
    Corporate site.
  5. [5]
    . Medievärlden. 2017. (in Swedish)
  6. [6]
    James Pearn
  7. [7]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Switzerland/comments/plf3mv/englishforumch_has_become_a_hotspot_for_covid/
  8. [8]
    Web Archive - EnglishForum.CH has become a hotbed of Covid misinformation
  9. [9]
    "The Locals chefredaktör blir innehållschef". www.resume.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  10. [10]
    "Join Us! Become a Member of The Local". thelocal.se. 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  11. [11]
    "Next week we'll be asking you to become a Member of The Local. This is why". thelocal.de. 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  12. [12]
    "Why The Local France will soon be asking you to become paying Members". thelocal.fr. 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  13. [13]
    "Why The Local Italy will soon be asking you to become a paying Member". thelocal.it. 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  14. [14]
    "The Local Spain rolls out Membership: Why it's a positive move for readers". thelocal.es. 2018-09-18. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  15. [15]
    "The power of community: How a small publisher hit 50,000 paying members through audience engagement". What's New in Publishing. 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  16. [16]
    "The Local Europe AB". allabolag.se. 2023-01-25. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  17. [17]
    https://largestcompanies.com/company/The-Local-Europe-AB-456826/closing-figures-and-key-ratios?currency=EUR
  18. [18]
    https://twitter.com/GoodExtraDucks/status/1762792223735685499
  19. [19]
    De kan bli Årets Dagstidning Digitala Medier. Medievärlden. September 14, 2009.
  20. [20]
    "Här är alla vinnarna av Tidskriftspriset 2018". Sveriges Tidskrifter (in Swedish). Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  21. [21]
    "2018 Winners – Native Advertising Awards". Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  22. [22]
    "Han vann Sveriges Tidskrifters Stora Pris: "Helt paff"". Retrieved 2023-03-19.
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