The top 10 stories of 2025, as told by The Raikes Journal

As The Raikes Journal approaches its second birthday we look back at the year gone, some of the headlines we made and what our best-read editions were each month. What a year it was!

Dec 09, 2023

Dear reader,

When February 2026 rolls around it will be the two-year anniversary of the soft launch of The Raikes Journal, a CIC with a mission to put some journalism back into the media mix for Gloucestershire.

There is, quite simply, no other digital platform in Gloucestershire that focuses on business news, is editorially-led, edited by a journalist and strives to deliver this kind of credibility.

If our audience and subcriber growth is anything to go by it’s welcome too.

I like to think that’s a result of readers also seeing Raikes as a safe port of call, a quiet space away from the maelstrom of information that batter the senses in the marketing channels that are social media.

We don’t do advertorials or lead on unchallenged press releases. Raikes is not a marketing channel. We do original journalism. It’s a crusade.

We think the county deserves better. And if you’re like-minded, want your business represented on a platform that has values and wants to help make what we do continue to happen, please do get in touch.

During the last year we’ve challenged the local authority owners on the sale of Gloucestershire Airport, which has produced stories in stark contrast to the press release-led headlines others have run stating how great the deal is for the county.

Is it really?

We have a city council currently that is seeking a £17.5 million loan about to sell its share of an asset some value at £300 million-plus for somewhere in the region of £30 million. For which it will get half. The local authorities dispute this figure, but we’ve been told by an expert is it not unrealistic.

We’ve worked hard to profile some of the faces that make our business community, charity and education and training sectors so effective, and given voice to scores of charities that would otherwise be unheard. Some platforms refuse to run charity stories. You’re not worth it, apparently!

And we’ve covered events like no one else. In fact, no one else seems to!

In the round-up below we look back over the last 12 months at the editions that gained the most views and the ‘stories’ that led them.

These are stories that would not have been told if Raikes did not exist. Stories that, in the case of the airport, would have been posted elsewhere as ‘great news’ for the county and the voices of the businesses on the Staverton site whose livelihoods depend on the airport would never have been heard.

We already had the most experienced editorial team in the county when we started Raikes, and the obligatory thousands of social media followers – 10,000-plus on LinkedIn alone, etc, etc.

But in that last 18 to 20 months we’ve grown our subscription numbers from scratch to nearly 1,000. If you are reading this, you’re probably one of them. Thank you.

When we’re sending our three newsletters a week we clock more than 12,000 page views a month. If you consider two or those three pages a week are whole editions that contain between six and 10 stories each, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to multiply that by the 12,000 figure to get to a fairer total. But we don’t. What matters is the numbers continue to rise, we attract the right people and readers like what we’re doing.

Afterall, what good is reaching 5,000 people on Facebook if none of them are your target business audience or 2,000 views on LinkedIn if no one clicks through from your post to the meat of the matter?

We know that we reach business leaders and those interested in the county’s business, charity, training and education communities. We can see who reads our stories.

All of this is only possible because we’re backed by some incredible Founding Partners - but we do need more support to enable us to realise all our plans.

We are looking for more to join us in 2026, especially as Founding Partners, helping shape what we write about; as corporate partners, founding members, sponsors of our Top 100 series, our Charity of the Week series, our monthly business awards and more.

We would love to hear from you and help tell your stories. After all, who else will? No one will write articles about you like us that will reach the special audience we are attracting. With your support, we can reach event more people.

Best regards,

Andrew Merrell (editor).

Email: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

* The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors and our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to become a paid subscriber you’ll be part of this CIC too. You’ll help make us sustainable, be able to see past the paywalls, comment on our stories too, and know you’re making possible the county’s only editorially-led platform dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire about its businesses, charities, education and training sectors.

Sign up for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!