Copyright © 2026 OyList. All Rights Reserved.
Share
Items18
1
The Bristol Cable
Bristol, England
A group of volunteers launched the Cable in 2014 because they were tired of corporate-owned local media, and it is now an investigative media co-op owned by thousands of people in the city. Membership is pay-what-you-can, starting at roughly the price of a pint, and major decisions go to a vote at the annual general meeting. Members paying more than £5 a month get the print edition delivered. The best place to start if you want to see how a local newsroom runs on ordinary readers' money rather than one wealthy backer.
More about The Bristol Cable2
The Ferret (website)
Scotland
The Ferret has published investigations since 2015 as a co-op owned by its members rather than by billionaires or corporations. Members do more than pay: they help decide what the newsroom investigates, which gives the ownership model a direct line into the editorial agenda. Expect slow, document-heavy reporting on Scottish public life rather than daily news. Pair it with the Bristol Cable to compare two small British co-ops doing the same kind of digging in different places.
More about The Ferret (website)3
The Meteor (Manchester)
Greater Manchester, England
Small and local, The Meteor became a co-op in July 2019 and is registered as a Community Benefit Society, a legal form meant to serve a community rather than outside shareholders. It runs on a not-for-profit basis and writes for the people of Greater Manchester. It earns its place as the clearest example here of that particular structure, which makes it worth studying for anyone deciding how to set up a new community newsroom in Britain.
More about The Meteor (Manchester)4
Morning Star (British newspaper)
Britain
The veteran of the list. Ownership of the old Daily Worker passed from the Communist Party of Great Britain to the People's Press Printing Society, a readers' co-op set up in 1945 with shares sold at £1, and the paper has been called the Morning Star since 1966. It remains Britain's clearest example of a national daily owned by the people who read it. The politics are openly left-wing, so read it for coverage of workers and the unions and for proof that reader ownership can last for generations, not for neutrality.
More about Morning Star (British newspaper)5
New Internationalist
Britain, global coverage
A rare multi-stakeholder co-op: the magazine is owned jointly by its workers and roughly 4,600 reader co-owners, so neither group can run it alone. It has published in-depth commentary on global issues since 1973 and stays entirely independent of corporate owners. Choose it for international affairs with a long view, and for a working example of how a staff co-op can bring readers in as fellow owners without handing them the newsroom.
More about New Internationalist6
Positive News
Britain
In 2015 Positive News asked readers to buy it, and a 30-day community share offer raised £263,422 from 1,525 people in 33 countries. The result is a co-op in which every owner has one vote however many shares they hold, and the owners elect the board. The journalism is solutions-focused: stories about what is working rather than a daily diet of disaster. A good choice for anyone who wants a lighter read and a clear example of a share offer done well.
More about Positive News7
Die Tageszeitung
Berlin, Germany (in German)
The biggest proof that reader ownership scales. Since the early 1990s the whole publishing company has belonged to a cooperative, and by January 2026 it had more than 25,000 members. A share costs 500 euros, and each member gets one vote no matter how many shares they hold. The taz is a national left-leaning daily that stopped printing its weekday paper in October 2025 and now publishes those days digitally, which makes it a live case study in how a co-op handles the end of print.
More about Die Tageszeitung8
Krautreporter
Germany (in German)
Krautreporter began as a crowdfunded digital magazine in 2014 and later turned itself into a cooperative, so the outlet now belongs to its cooperative members. It carries no advertising and publishes explanatory, slower-paced pieces rather than breaking news. It is a useful contrast to the taz: a digital-only outlet where the co-op owners are a smaller circle than the paying readership, which shows that ownership and subscription do not have to be the same thing.
More about Krautreporter9
WOZ Die Wochenzeitung
Zurich, Switzerland (in German)
The purest staff-run model here. Founded in 1981, the weekly is published by the infolink cooperative, whose highest governing body is the plenum of the people who work there, and everyone on staff is paid the same wage whatever the job. It is a left-wing national weekly, and the same cooperative also publishes the German-language edition of Le Monde diplomatique. Read it to see what flat pay and self-management look like after more than four decades in print.
More about WOZ Die Wochenzeitung10
Republik
Zurich, Switzerland (in German)
Republik's own summary of its ownership is that it belongs to nobody, and a little bit to every member. The digital magazine launched in January 2018, carries no advertising at all and is financed by more than 30,000 subscribers. Readers who take out a membership, rather than a monthly subscription, become members of Project R, the cooperative behind it. Pick it for long, carefully edited reporting and essays on Swiss politics and society, and as the leading example of a reader cooperative built from scratch in the digital era rather than rescued from an old paper.
More about Republik11
Il manifesto
Rome, Italy (in Italian, with an English edition)
A daily since April 1971, il manifesto is owned by a non-profit cooperative made up only of the people who work at the paper. It pays no dividends, runs on one person, one vote, and its general assembly elects both the board and the editor in chief, so the staff literally choose their own boss. After the old publisher went into forced liquidation in 2012, a new staff cooperative took over the paper and bought the masthead back in 2016. Read it for the sharpest left-wing daily voice in Italy and a model of journalists answering to each other.
More about Il manifesto12
El Salto (newspaper)
Spain (in Spanish)
El Salto describes itself as collectively owned, decentralized and funded by the people who read it, and it counts more than 10,000 members. It grew out of the newspaper Diagonal, founded in 2005, and its most important decisions are taken by a general assembly. Changing the outlet's red lines needs a binding referendum of all members, and an ethics code governs what advertising and grants it will accept. Choose it for independent reporting from across Spain, backed by one of the strongest member votes on this list.
More about El Salto (newspaper)13
La Marea (Spanish magazine)
Spain (in Spanish)
When the print edition of the daily Público closed, laid-off staff joined forces with its readers to found a new outlet, and La Marea is the result. It is published by MásPúblico, a non-profit cooperative whose members are both workers and readers, and advertising brings in less than 10% of revenue. Every member has one vote, however much capital they put in. Choose it to see a small mixed co-op in practice: far fewer owners than El Salto, but a structure that puts readers and staff in the same cooperative on equal terms, behind a print magazine and a daily website.
More about La Marea (Spanish magazine)14
Alternatives économiques
France (in French)
The economics monthly was founded in 1980 and is a Scop, a French worker cooperative: its employees hold the majority of the voting rights and the capital, so the people who make it are the ones in control. It explains economics, work and public policy for general readers and runs mainly on subscriptions and newsstand sales rather than a wealthy owner. A good pick for anyone who wants a business-minded publication run on cooperative lines, and for seeing the French Scop model in a newsroom.
More about Alternatives économiques15
Les Coops de l'information (CN2i)
Quebec, Canada (in French)
The largest rescue on this list. When Groupe Capitales Médias went bankrupt in 2019, its six regional dailies, including Le Soleil and Le Droit, were bought for a symbolic dollar by a new cooperative. At first each paper ran as its own local co-op; in 2023 members voted almost unanimously to merge them into a single non-profit cooperative, with an advisory committee at each paper to keep members involved. Read them for regional news from Quebec and the Ottawa area, and watch the finances: in April 2025 the group walked away from merger talks with La Presse in favor of its own plan to break even in 2026.
More about Les Coops de l'information (CN2i)16
Defector Media
United States
After Deadspin's staff quit over interference from their private equity owners, 18 of them plus one business hire launched Defector as a worker cooperative, publishing from September 2020. The staff own it and run it together, and it is a subscription business rather than one built on investors. The writing covers sports and culture with a sharp, funny voice. This is the American model to study if you want proof that a worker-owned site can pay its way through readers.
More about Defector Media17
Hell Gate NYC
New York City, United States
Hell Gate is a subscriber-funded news site about New York City, owned and operated by the journalists who write it, and its worker-owners hold full and sole authority over editorial content. Think of it as the local-news counterpart to Defector, with the city itself as the beat instead of sports. Choose it if you live in or follow New York, or if you want to see whether the worker-owned model can sustain everyday reporting on a single city.
More about Hell Gate NYC18
Aftermath (website)
United States
A group of former Kotaku writers launched Aftermath in November 2023, as games newsrooms were being cut across the industry. It is a worker-owned news site covering video games, the internet and the cultures around them, and it is supported entirely by readers rather than ads. Its labor reporting on the games, streaming and journalism industries is the reason to read it even if you rarely play, and it shows the worker-owned model can work on a niche beat, not just general news.
More about Aftermath (website)
