Lucy Richardson
A new magazine which will promote the achievements of women in the north of England has been launched to answer a “gap in the market”.
Journalist Lucy Richardson, previously a senior reporter at The Northern Echo and Hexham Courant, said she was motivated to start the magazine by standing in the supermarkets queues to be presented with “with magazine headlines that shame celebrities if they are not a size zero and praise them for pinging back into a bikini days after having a baby.”
She said: “I wanted to approach media in a different way, I’m a journalist not a blogger but I watch a lot of YouTube and I really wanted to get my personality across like they do. I filmed a video for the website explaining what it’s about and spoke a bit about myself, which included having a stammer. It was really important from the outset that I was honest and I hoped that being vulnerable others would feel they could share their stories too – the response has been overwhelming.
“I’m really interested in presenting stories in a fresh format, not everything suits a traditional 500-word feature with pictures. I’d like to experiment with using audio and video as well as the written word to keep the reader’s ears entertained as well as their eyes.”
Express North will have fresh content added five days a week in written and video format and will feature career profiles, real-life stories and opinion pieces as well as fashion and beauty.
Richardson, who is based in Stockton, is being supported by Teesside University’s DigitalCity Fellowship scheme. Director of The Forge, Teesside University’s front door for business, Laura Woods said they had been delighted to help launch anoother business: “It’s good to see Express North, led by a female entrepreneur, championing the talent and achievements of the region’s women.”
