The publisher of four London local newspapers is expecting to be profitable for the second year running in 2026.

But David Floyd, managing director of Social Spider CIC, said it had been “a real challenge” to get to that point in London’s “tough market” for local news.

Social Spider, a social enterprise, publishes monthly print newspapers the Waltham Forest Echo (launched in 2014), Enfield Dispatch (2018), Barnet Post (2021) and Newham Voices (launched independently in 2020 but published by Social Spider since 2023).

Online it also publishes Haringey Community Press (originally launched as Tottenham Community Press in 2016 but closed in print in 2024), Clerkenwell news website EC1 Echo (2019) in partnership with local charity The Peel, and the newly-launched Barking and Dagenham Star.

Social Spider previously produced the magazine One in Four, written by and for people with mental health difficulties, between 2007 and 2014 when Floyd said they realised “there was an unmet need in local news, particularly at that point in the London borough of Waltham Forest where we were initially based for a long time”.

The Waltham Forest Echo, Enfield Dispatch and Barnet Post distribute 15,000 copies each in street bins, libraries and community venues, while Newham Voices distributes 12,500. “For us, the mass circulation element of it is important,” Floyd said.

Social Spider recorded a pre-tax profit of £30,495 in the last financial year to 31 July 2025 and is expecting to again make a profit this year, Floyd told Press Gazette. This was an increase from a loss before tax of £22,475 in the year to 31 July 2024.

As it is a not-for-profit social enterprise, any surplus goes directly back into the journalism. Social Spider is a community interest company, which means it is a limited company with social objectives that aims to benefit the community rather than private shareholders.

Floyd said: “It’s a fairly good time right now, but it’s been a real challenge to get to where we are.”

He said “in some ways” they were lucky because they entered the local news market after its challenges had already begun, meaning they were “not in a position of thinking, oh, you know, where’s all that lovely money gone? Because we never had it.”

Source: Press Gazette