Citizen-Funded Trustworthy Newspaper Alternatives
ByLine Times is a super publication. You can order monthly printed copies to your door, or read online (there is also an accompanying TV channel). You can read many articles for free online.
It also runs an investigative journalism channel and a magazine-style Substack account (over 30,000 subscribers and growing).
This is citizen-funded, so your support enables it to report with news, with no ads, bias or political interference. Its ‘poster boy’ is actor Hugh Grant, who you may remember took newspapers to court for tapping his phone.
You can read news here that you won’t find elsewhere. For example, today’s news reports that the government is considering closing a loophole to let foreigners donate huge amounts to UK political parties.
Elon Musk wishes to donate $100 million to Reform, which Nigel Farage says he would accept, if offered.
Here’s the scary part:
Elon’s father says that Reform could get this donation ‘if needed’ to help the party win the next election. Saying ‘I think it’s a good idea’. His father is a South African politician, so what’s it got to do with him, on who funds UK political parties? Byline Times stands up to power.
It also reports how recently Sir Keir Starmer has hired a chief communications officer, linked to The Sun’s phone-hacking and media intrusion (not to mention sexism, with page 3 girls). And even once published an image of a sexual abuse victim, without consent.
You won’t find any of this ‘real news’ on the BBC programs or websites.
A new type of newspaper. No oligarchs, no government bungs, no adverts. Just journalism. Funded by our readers. We will follow the story wherever it goes, without fear or favour.
No PR company, advertise or press baron can influence the stories, we choose to cover. Our integrity comes from our editorial independence. Byline Times
What Was the Phone Hacking Scandal about?
In 2022, it came to light that journalists working for News International (which owned News of the World) had illegally hacked into the voicemails of public figures to get stories, by guessing pin codes and hiring private investigators.
A special law meant that it was almost financially impossible for anyone to go all the way to trial (the only one rich enough to do so was Prince Harry, who recently won his case).
Hugh Grant instead took a financial settlement, and donated all proceeds to press regulation charities. He thought this was more beneficial, than potentially losing the case and going bankrupt.
What gets more serious, is that one phone was hacked of a murder victim. What happened to Milly Dowler revulsed the public so much, the newspaper ended up closing down.
After finding that their daughter’s voicemails had been deleted, Milly’s mother exclaimed to her husband ‘She’s checked her voicemail, Bob – she’s alive!’ In fact, the messages had been deleted by a private investigator, and Milly was likely already dead.
Hugh Grant at the trial called the hacking of a murdered schoolgirl’s voicemail ‘cowardly and shocking’.
Recent articles include:
Virginia Giuffre was an ‘American hero’ and ‘politics with a difference’ by former Green leader and MP Caroline Lucas.
How a plan by Reform UK to scrap nature protection rules would lead to the demise of our countyside and wildlife (including beavers, bats, birds and butterflies).
Natural ecosystems that would suffer from deregulation include chalk streams (almost unique to England), ancient woodlands, salt marshes, sand dunes and endangered peat bogs.
Rivers would also suffer more pollution, algae blooms and sewage, something greatly in the news at present already, due mostly to agricultural run-off from non-organic farms.
The Conversation (helping to rebuild trust in journalism)
The Conversation is an source of independent news online, which works with academic experts, to help rebuild trust in journalism, after years of bias due to ads, donations and being owned by media barons, and the recent hacking scandals.
The UK edition is part of an international network in 14 countries, with all journalists signing up to its Editorial Charter, for fact-filled articles on the environment to politics.
Everything is free to read (never on paywall) and all content is free to share or republish under a Creative Commons license, as long as you follow their simple republishing guidelines.
Began in Australia, this news source is funded by donations, for those who support free and fair media.
As the media becomes more polarised, we’re not here to divide. We share facts and expert insight, as widely as possible. The Conversation
This is a popular news source, with over 5 million readers already in the UK, and over 23 million readers worldwide, proving there is a market for alternative news without bias. 94% of readers say the content is trustworthy:
Run as a non-profit to serve the public good in a healthy democracy, errors are promptly corrected to remove misinformation from the public record and there is no political bias, with a focus on solutions.
Example articles of late include one about the shambles of the launch of Your Party (the co-leaders fell out before the party’s official launch):
Support for Your Party fell from 18% in July 2025 to just 12% by November, while the Green Party, with its clear brand identity, experienced a membership surge.
Perhaps voters and activists sense that when you cannot articulate what your name signifies, you cannot sustain a coherent political project.
It also reports on the rise of the political mega-donor (after a tech millionaire recently gave the biggest ever personal political donation of £9 million to Reform UK, even though he has not lived in England for 20 years).
The London Economic (progressive & compassionate news)
The London Economic is a digital newspaper that supports progressive viewpoints and compassionate politics, to counter the spread of far-right rhetoric that dominates most mainstream media.
Run mostly by volunteer journalists and contributors, it was founded in 2013, and also includes articles on travel, music, film and sport. As a London newspaper, it also supports ethical entrepreneurs, and tackles big issues facing inner-city life.
Everything is free to read with no paywall, due to those who donate to fair journalism. Recent articles include:
How a Tory and Reform UK pact is doomed to fail, the launch of the online Liz Truss show and visiting ‘London’s most dangerous areas’ to reveal that the media is making quite nice places seem worse than they are. One journalist visited Brixton to find a dog that barked once, because he brushed the baguette that was protruding from its guardian’s tote bag!
Another article ‘bigs up Britain’, fed of ‘patriots who wave the flag, and constantly complain about our wonderful country’:
We are a country that can queue for hours, and apologise when someone else bumps into us. For people so passionate about ‘taking their country back’, they don’t seem to enjoy actually living in it very much.
Patriotism doesn’t have to shout. It doesn’t need fury or nostalgia, for a Britain that never really existed. It can be found in the echo of church bells, in the kindness of strangers on a rainy bus.
The Canary Newspaper (stories that matter to ordinary people)
The Canary offers independent news stories (mostly focused on the UK, but also worldwide) that matter to ordinary people. With the aim of giving a voice and empowering real people, rather than ‘telling people what to believe and how to vote’.
Citizen-funded, it focuses on peace and equality, many stories focus on proper investment in public services, houses and the NHS, with a decent and compassionate welfare system.
The site is even run on Krystal Hosting, an excellent green web host run on Ecotricity, which works with tree-planting organisations.
Recent articles include:
- The excellent reception of Green leader Zack Polanski on the ‘immigration special on BBC Question Time.
- How European countries banning fur farms, is upping pressure for the UK to ban imports.
- How two disabled campaigners were unable to access parliament’s ‘International Day of Persons with Disabilities’, due to lack of access.
Real News Network (citizen-funded current affairs)
The Real News Network is an excellent worldwide news channel, which focuses a lot on the climate crisis. . It’s funded by donations (though you can watch for free if you have no money, supported by others who donate, so everyone has access to real news).
You can watch all their programs on YouTube. Unlike say our BBC News, the journalists tend to live and work in the areas. So if a report is coming from say Mexico, it’s going to be a Mexican journalist reporting.
Again due to lack of influence from ads or politicians, these programs are enlightening, and make for gripping viewing, if you want to know what’s going on in the world. Without sensationalism.
This recent program reports on the plan to destroy 550 tons of emergency food relief languishing in warehouses, intended for children in impoverished and war-torn regions, due to the now-defunct USAID program.
These high-energy biscuits could feed every starving child in Gaza or 1.5 million children for a week. Why on earth is our BBC not reporting on this?
Change isn’t going to be handed to us from the elite power brokers and donors controlling the political parties that got us here. And it sure won’t come from the same oligarchs and zealots plundering our societies, democratic institutions, economy and our planet.
If we expect to see a future that’s still worth living in, the people will need to fight for it. And The Real News Network will be there on the front lines, with cameras and microphones. The Real News Network
Killer Water is a documentary about the toxic oil legacy left in Canada, never mentioned in mainstream media. Other recent shows include free buses in Maryland (paving the way for similar schemes nationwide) and how The Epstein Transparency Act is ensuring that America’s elite are ‘losing control of the narrative’.
Independent journalism like ours doesn’t get funding from billionaires, corporate advertisers or political parties. We rely on people like you. The Real News Network
Truthout (an independent real news network)
Truthout is another independent worldwide news organisation, which you can tell by the name, is dedicated to truth! It has categories on Trump (this organisation is based in the US), fossil fuels, gerrymandering (political bias) and international politics.
Recent articles include Trump’s plans to open up millions of acres of land for Arctic drilling, which would lead to irreversible harm for local caribou, migratory birds and fish. And Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill’ resulting in sky-high energy price increases, mostly for his loyal (and mostly on low income) voters.
It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day, always exactly just fits the newspaper. Jerry Seinfeld
The Media Revolution (reversing the ‘disinformation disaster’)
The Media Revolution asks us to stand up (by ignoring) state, corporate and social media, which has been hijacked by powerful interests – billionaire owners, political operators and advertisers, who push narrow and toxic agendas, which are eroding democracy, and destroying life in its path.
It also runs its own news clubs (like book clubs, but for news) that you can join and get involved with.
We will not stay silent. We will call it what it is. Genocide, ecocide and menticide (controlling people’s minds):
Whether it’s disabled people ‘undeserving of support’, refugees labelled ‘invaders’, climate activists called ‘eco-terrorists’ or entire communities demonised based on race, religion or lifestyle – the press frames others as threats or burdens, rather than human beings with valid experiences.
It runs a Stop Selling Lies campaign on climate change:
Climate scientist John Cook when asked how much of global warming is caused by humans replies ‘Nearly all of it’. Yet still big newspapers and political parties continue to deny the urgency, or say that it’s not mostly manmade. They are not climate scientists, he is.
He says that just 10% of Americans (and likely people in the UK) are aware that over 95% of global warming is caused by humans (mostly through fossil fuels, livestock farming and deforestation).
He says 97% of climate scientists are with him on this – the other 3% are nearly all employed by vested interests.
The media does a lot of damage through false balance – giving deniers equal weight with climate scientists. This reduces acceptance of climate change. The news media could cover climate change accurately, while fulfilling the journalistic norm of balance. Dr John Cook
