Making Dublin’s Citizens’ Agenda

Lois Kapila, Dublin Inquirer

Who We Are

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• Founded in mid-2015
• Independent reader-funded journalism
• Monthly print edition and weekly online edition
• Events and meet-ups
• Local news, focus on reporting rather than opinion
• Small

Our Team

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• One full-time editor/reporter/admin/business development
• One part-time deputy editor/admin/business development
• Two full-time reporters
• One part-time reporter
• Wider circle of freelancers and columnists
• No separate designated head of community engagement

Revenue

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• €7,100/mo in subscriptions (gross)
• €500/mo from print sales through stockists, copy-editing work, lectures, etc.
• €? Really variable from events

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What’s a Citizens’ Agenda?

Benefits for Us

• Gets readers involved

Done A Few Before

Benefits for Us

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• Gets readers involved
• Shape coverage around readers’ needs
• Enable small team to do more comprehensive elections coverage?
• Differentiate from other publications
• Give people info they wouldn’t get otherwise

Getting Started

We compiled a list of possible reader-helpers in January, asked who might help with a Citizens’ Agenda project.

From Then: Asking the Question

“What do you want the candidates in the upcoming local elections to be discussing as they compete for votes?”

• IN EMAIL NEWSLETTER
• IN PRINT EDITION
• ON SOCIAL MEDIA, REDDIT
• ASKED FIRST SET OF VOLUNTEERS TO ASK 10 PEOPLE OFFLINE, TOO

Sorting Responses

Got roughly 200 responses �back from readers

Core Volunteers

Needed second set of volunteers. At first, 22 people said they’d help. In the end, 11 actually helped us out.

• OFFERED PAY
• SAYING THANK YOU

Asking Candidates

There were a whopping 130 candidates, and official register only published at last minute before election day.

• Sam tracked down half of candidates, volunteers found other half and contact details.
• Volunteers tasked with asking questions, and following up multiple times (some more persistent than others).
• Some volunteers got way more responses than others.
• At launch, had 68 responses back.

Keeping the Pressure On

By election day, we’d had back 105 responses from candidates.

• Candidates being bugged on doors
• A holding page for those councillors who hadn’t replied, inviting constituents to email them
• Spread on social media and high engagement

Other Stuff

What if answers were full of racism or hate speech?

If all their positions aren’t clear from the questions asked, e.g. great on cycle lanes but holocaust-deniers or something?

When to provide more context?

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Other Stuff

It was the first time. It might be more stage-managed next time.

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Pros and Cons

• Helped people know how to vote.
• Really happy existing subscribers.
• Bump in new subscriptions (66 in May, versus 30 on normal months)
• Introduced us to new people with a feel-good civic project. (Homepage of the project got 38,000 visits in May.)
• Ripple effects, with people contacting us to say they wanted to do it elsewhere, from Canada, other parts of Ireland.

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• Added to already significant workload
• Managing people can be hard and sensitive, particularly if they’re not being paid. Would it have been easier to do it all ourselves?

Next Time?

• More offline outreach for what people wanted questions to focus on, e.g. canvassing in person (but didn’t have budget for it)
• Debates and hustings for it
• Advertising to spread the word a bit wider, through radio adverts, or side-of-the-bus adverts.

Thank You!

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lois@dublininquirer.com

@LoKapila