Hi folks, Tom here. I’m one of two News Editors at Nouse, along with Emily Stevens and the Deputy Editors, Benjamin Liang and Naomi Wiggin. Whilst the others were elected in early October, I’ve held the role since the start of Summer. One of my first moves as News Editor was to work with the Editor-in-Chief, Ellen Morris, to create The Nouseletter, a weekly email newsletter that has now been running for 17 weeks.
I pitched The Nouseletter as a way to overcome the challenges facing student media. A lack of funding and resources means Nouse’s print editions have become quarterly affairs, and a constantly shifting pool of volunteer writers means it is difficult to churn out news reports to strict deadlines. This makes it hard for us to keep on top of news as it develops, one of the key requirements of any news section. erw pipe
What’s more, in recent years Nouse has had a confusing output. News coverage was made up of the odd longer piece of truly original student journalism, accompanied by the occasional rewriting of a national news story. The infrequency of these articles meant the scope of Nouse’s news journalism was not clear, presenting the section with three key questions: who are we writing for, what should we cover, and how are we going to do it?
The Nouseletter is our attempt to start resolving these issues, by drawing on cutting-edge examples from the media industry. Financial newsrooms are setting trends in an industry where legacy print media is struggling to find its audience, outlets are shifting online, and journalists are hunting for new ways to explain their societal value and drive up profits. Financial news outlets, which market themselves to paying customers in the corporate world, were the first to use email newsletters to keep their clients upto-date drectly. Some work experience at Tortoise over the Summer also gave me an insight into what goes into such a newsletter, and how they can be a platform for both brief but important news journalism, and a promoter for the rest of a publication’s work.
The Nouseletter thus follows the style and example of Tortoise’s Daily Sensemaker. It contains a balance of local news, politics news, sports news and culture news, all tailored to our student audience. Unlike the Sensemaker, it goes out every Monday.
The idea is that students can start their week reliably informed of events directly impacting them. Each section of the Nouseletter is made up of “blurbs” - short, 100-400 word reports that summarise events, existing reportage, and why it matters.
Our “Lead Story”, which begins every Nouseletter, is, in our opinion, the most important piece of news for students to know about. It is also much longer than a blurb, allowing for us to include an angle original to Nouse, informed by, for example, interviews with University staff, or polls of student opinion.
With the Nouseletter ensuring we are providing students with regular journalism on issues that matter to them, the rest of our time has been free to focus on longer pieces of more original journalism. This means that the individual articles we publish online and in print feature stories not covered by any other news outlets - reporting that is truly unique to Nouse.
Below are some of my favourite pieces from the Nouseletter so far!
Drain cover thieves strike again! [From our 15th edition, this is a great news piece by Antony Rettagliati expanding on a peculiar story that was covered very briefly by local news outlets. Also, Antony started writing for Nouse recently in October - the Nouseletter is often a place where aspiring writers cut their teeth before moving on to more ambitious projects.]
York and the surrounding villages have had dozens of drain covers mysteriously stolen across the city last week with a police investigation underway.
Drain covers reportedly disappeared on the night of 30th October from Wigginton, Haxby and Skelton to the north, Leeman Road, as well as Foxwood and Woodthorpe towards the south-west in an offence previously described by transport council- lors as a ‘dangerous act of vandalism’.
Similar sprees occurred in Feb- ruary 2021 when 50 metal gully grid drain covers went missing in New Earswick – suspiciously close to Wigginton and Haxby, while 18 drain covers were stolen in October 2022 in the South Bank area. Police have since failed to catch the culprits.
Rather than vandalism, the theft is more likely to be for the selling of scrap metal though the reported cast iron covers are unlikely to be more profitable than aluminium and stainless-steel alternatives, reflecting the mindless nature of this infrastructure attack.
Elsewhere, drain cover thefts pose significant safety risks to road users including motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, children and pets, with a man in Sunderland sustaining serious injuries having fallen down a drain in March this year. North Yorkshire Police urge anyone with information, CCTV, dashcam or doorbell footage to contact them on 101.
Sophie May [from the music column of our “Muse Recommends” section, this passionate recommendation from Deputy Music Editor Riley Thorpe, is a great example of opinion-based culture writing, and showcases the breadth of content in the Nouseletter]
Sophie May is one of my absolute favourite artists, I’ve seen her a total of three times in the past few years and I believe she is a truly underrated singer-songwriter. I saw her first in October of 2022, opening for Matt Maltese, shortly after her first EP, You Do Not Have To Be Good was released.
I am in love with every song of this record with my favourite being ‘Cadillac’ and ‘High Life’ which unfortu- nately she does not play live anymore. Her mellow sound of just May and her guitar is gorgeous as her voice is so soothing and earnest while she explores topics of intrusive thoughts, love, and existential thoughts.
Since then, I have seen her grow significantly with a few of her songs like ‘Just Want You’ helping her find fame from TikTok. Her most recent single called ‘Little Light’ is my favourite song of hers to date. It is a love letter to her young niece and it is the sweetest, most heart-wrenching song I have heard. With lyrics like “it all belongs to you and you alone” and ending with just her niece’s name- June - being repeated leaves you with tears in your eyes.
I was lucky enough to see her perform this before its release when I saw her open for Searows. Even though I hadn’t heard the song before that day, it left me feeling so emotional, and after hearing it with its full production and vocal layering, I can say it is one of my favourite singles released this year.
As an artist, I consider Sophie May the best opener I’ve ever seen, and as someone who has adored her music for the past two years I could not recommend giving her a listen more. Set yourself up with a ginger tea, a blanket, and some warm lighting to really set the scene.
Student protest ‘a gathering of immature individuals’ say York Reform Society
University and SU challenged by two open letters
Union concerned about “lack of proper consultation” regarding Kings Manor move
heavy duty grating Fallen trees and flooding on-campus