Five years of NN Journal

Sunday marks our fifth anniversary, with more than 1,000 articles published since 2021

Dear reader,

Happy New year and it’s a time of reflection for myself, as this Sunday marks NN Journal’s fifth anniversary. On January 4 2021, the first post from NN Journal, an article about the rise of far right extremism in Northants was sent to just over 300 readers, who had kindly signed up to support us in our venture to launch a new independent news service all about Northants.

Born out of a chat between myself and freelance journalist Natalie Bloomer, the aim of NN Journal, was then, as it is now, to add to the journalism offer in Northamptonshire and hold power to account.

I’m not sure we knew whether we would make it to five years and so today feel’s like an achievement. Over the half decade, we have published more than 1,000 articles and had a number of scoops that have been followed up by others and led to changes on the political scene.

Natalie (left) and myself.

Sadly for NN Journal, Natalie moved on to the work for a bigger organisation - I’m ever hopeful she will one day return to writing for us again - but over the years we have been fortunate to feature other writers including Julia Thorley, and today we regularly benefit from the reporting of local democracy reporter Nadia Lincoln.

Personal reflections from me are how enjoyable it has been to write NN Journal and dig behind the scenes of some of our public institutions. Even with the legal threats and police bother, it has all been worth it and there is nothing quite like picking up the phone and being given a tip off that you know will make waves if you can stand it up properly and publish.

Huge thanks to our contacts and sources (you will, of course, forever remain anonymous); colleagues from other news outlets (we are a friendly bunch in Northants and help each other out when we can) and most of all to the readers, who share, comment, provide tip offs and support us.

I hope NN Journal will still be sending out news posts in five years time and if you can support us, please subscribe below.

And if you’ve got any tip offs you’d like us to have a look at in 2026 please send a message.

Here’s to a, no doubt, interesting 2026.

Many thanks, Sarah Ward