Draft:The Bylines Network

The Bylines Network is citizens journalistic news network in the UK, comprising of 8 publications in England, one each for Scotland and Wales. It is run by Louise Houghton and Dr. Mike Galsworthy. Steve Colegrave and Peter Jukes serve as Non-Executive Directors. It is a partner organisation of Byline Times, although, they are considered two different legal entities. The organisation has an estimated 1200 volunteers working for it.

2020
The Network started under its first publication in April 2020, Yorkshire Bylines, by Mike Galsworthy and Peter Jukes to create a publication about local stories that might slip by the main news sources. Dr. Galsworthy bought his friend, Louise Houghton, who has a history of working in Journalism, to help run Yorkshire and to help expand the Network, centering each publication around local identity.

Throughout 2020, several publications were added to the network. West Country Bylines was added in June 2020, which covers the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset.

North East Bylines was added at the beginning of July, covering Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham, Teeside, and Hartlepool.

West England Bylines was created at the end of July, covering the West England Combined Authority, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.

Two more were created after this, Sussex Bylines in August and East Midlands Bylines in September, the latter of which covered Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, and Northamptonshire.

2021
In January, the Network launched Kent Bylines to add to their publications, the smallest of the publications so far.

East Midlands Bylines became the first of the publications to rebrand and expand to cover more counties. They decided to cover Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and the West Midlands County and change their name to Central Bylines. In doing so, they became the biggest publication under the Network.

East Anglia Bylines was later launched in July, reporting in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire.

On the 14th July, the Network became a recognised, legal entity, Bylines Network Limited, to help expand its reach.

In December, West Country Bylines decided to split from the wider Network to pursue its own path in Citizen Journalism, becoming West Country Voices.

2022
In February, North West Bylines launched, reporting on news in Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester. The network launched a brand new logo in April, depicting a Red Kite on top of a rolled up newspaper. The website says it's because "birds symbolise the role of messenger and our kite is carrying the gazette in her talons."

An app where you can access all articles published by all their publications was launched for Apple products on 27th May 2022. It was later released on Android products in September. As of July 2023, the IOS version had 14.1K dowloads and the Android version had 1.93K downloads.

In August, Bylines Scotland was created. It aimed to create conversations around topics important to Scottish people, including taking an impartial stance on Scottish Independence. Then editor, Ian Kinsey, said at the launch "Over five million people call Scotland home – including millions of voices looking for a way to communicate their ideas, or a soapbox to stand on and voice their hopes and desires for themselves, their families, communities and country.

“They, the people of Scotland, must be heard and, above all, listened to.”

In it's first year, they "published 371 articles" and had "approximately 225,000 views and 142,000 visitors to our website."

2023
In September 2022, the Network revealed that they were launching their next national publication, Bylines Cymru. The publication launched on St. David's Day 2023, with their mission statement saying "Raymond Williams said Welsh history is an “extraordinary process of self-generation and regeneration, from what seemed impossible conditions.” This is no less true of the voices of Wales, silenced then singing, silenced then singing, again and again...Who speaks for Wales? Wales does, or should."

In June, Kent Bylines rebranded itself to Kent and Surrey Bylines, since they were taking on more and more volunteers from the county. They also changed their logo to include the oak leaf of Surrey with the white horse of Kent.