A Media outlet to inspire & empower - One&Other chat to Startacus

by Startacus Admin

We first visited One&Other back in 2012 and we thought it wise to revist the interview and share again (now June 2014) with the guys to see how much their plans and visions have changed and come true.

A media outlet based in York One&Other was set up with the aspiration of sharing good and postive news. Their platform concentrates on local news stories, culture, and conversations that inspire and empower communities for good. Out goes the negative news agenda and in comes more considered reporting, reviews, and experiences, combined with the long-lost art of storytelling and beautiful design - philosophies close to Startacus' heart. With this in mind, we had wanted to find out more about One&Other, and how the mindset for their platform, first came about...

Check out their interview first published in 2012 for a little inspiration...

Onee&Other - what does the name mean & how did One&Other first come about?

The name is a play on "me and my community" which just came to us one day and, thankfully, wasn't trademarked. One&Other was born out of a desire to make a real difference and empower the community to do the same - as a local media company we're well placed to spark this positive change. It's taken a lot of work to bring that basic concept to life and we're proud of what we've achieved so far.

What motivates One&Other over everything else as a brand?

We believe local media has the potential (and responsibility) to bring people together, to give a voice to those who need it, and to inspire people-powered change. Unfortunately, traditional local media rarely acts in this way. As a brand, we're purposely different in every possible way to the traditional alternative, from aesthetic and editorial philosophy, to our underlying mission. Doing something new, and most importantly better, is not easy but it is worthwhile and necessary to stand out.

Wow!! What an amazingly long list of contributors who write for the site, how did you go about attracting such a diverse group of writers in such a short space of time?

By a simple motto: share your idea, involve others, and celebrate often. Thankfully a lot of people share our passion for what we're trying to do and have the creative talent to make it happen.

Your philosophy seems to be based upon, out with the bad (news) and in with the good - why?

We don't shy away from big issues, it's rather we take a more progressive approach to the way they're presented and would rather encourage our readers to be part of the solution. When 51% of people in the UK don't read their local newspaper, even once a week, we feel the outdated and unnecessarily negative news agenda is a huge part of that.

Still early stages, we appreciate, but how easy was it to give a business structure to One&Other?

We're still to master it if we're honest but for us it's more important to stay nimble and be able to take advantage of the opportunities that come our way. One of the hardest dilemmas for businesses such as ourselves is to strike the right balance between creativity and commerciality, but it's a nice problem to have. Thankfully my background in marketing lends itself well to these challenges.

What’s next for One&Other, and are there any interesting developments you can share with Startacus?

We've just grown our platforms from one to three, launching One&Other TV and a monthly magazine. We're also due to move into a new office in a few weeks as we've outgrown our current space. As to what's beyond that, we're tight lipped for now but have big plans for the rest of the year.

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Published on: 3rd August 2012