By John Baron & Jean Hollings
To mark this week’s Indie News Week 2026, West Leeds Dispatch is joining dozens of community news providers across the UK to highlight the importance of independent community news.
We’re holding a “Meet the Team” coffee morning on Thursday, 18 June, 10am-12pm at The Proper Bike Shop and Café, Stanningley Road, Leeds LS13 4EN – and we would love to see you!
Come and say hello on the day and join us for coffee, tea and biscuits. You can meet WLD‘s editor, learn how we operate, and ask anything you’d like to know.
Perhaps there’s something you’d like to see covered – or you might want to get involved with WLD as a community reporter or one of our other volunteers?
WLD is different to mainstream media organisations. We don’t have big shareholders to satisfy, we are literally community led and grounded in West Leeds.
We have a board of volunteers who help decide our strategic direction and we have trained up more than 100 volunteer community reporters over the years, who act as our eyes and ears. they write articles, take photos, produce podcasts and videos and run our what’s on section.
You are welcome to chat face to face to our Editor about stories, events or issues you that affect you. If you know someone who has makes a difference or is celebrating a significant achievement, someone who is an unsung hero, a group that needs support or is going from strength to strength; let us know and we’ll try feature them.
If you would like to learn more about becoming a community reporter you can chat to Jean, our Community Reporter Development and Support Worker.
If you can’t make it, you can always contact us on news@westleedsdispatch.com.
Indie News Week is run by the Public Interest News Foundation and aims to highlight the important work of indie news outlets across the UK. Its message during Indie News Week is ‘no news is bad news’.
How to support genuine community led news
- Sign up for our daily email newsletter.
- The days of a daily paper delivered to your door may be gone, but you can still have your daily dose of news delivered directly to your inbox every day at 7am.
- No need to even get out of bed, just open your eyes, open your e-mails and there it is.
- Make a donation – become a WLD supporter and help secure our future.
- If you like what we do, then we would love it if you could make a regular donation to support and help us continue our work. We ask for either £5 or £10 a month to support our work. You can also set up a standing order or make a one-off donation directly to us, simply e-mail accounts@westleedsdispatch.com for more details. Imagine what we could achieve with more resources!
- Tell your friends
- In May WLD had almost 140,000 age impressions on our website and distributed 5,000 copies of our print edition, but we would love to be able to reach more people. Please share our links on your street’s WhatsApp group or on Facebook, help an older neighbour sign up for our daily e-mail, or give a friend a physical copy of WLD.
- Become a partner
- By far the best way to spread the word in West Leeds about your organisation or business is to become a Partner (like Bramley Baths, see below)! Our partnerships come with amazing benefits for you and your business as well as offering you discounts on any further advertising/advertorials you would like.
- Keep you eye out for our next print edition – available from local community centres, hubs, sports centres, libraries etc.
Indie News Week – let’s keep local independent news rolling!
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