Case Study

The Moonraker: How CounterPress changed the game in Swindon

The story of our concept title. How a high-value, easily accessible coverage of local football generated a loyal audience, and reliable revenue.

In August 2024, The Moonraker was launched. Within weeks, it had become an established part of the local media landscape, delivering intelligent and informative coverage of Swindon Town FC to a loyal audience - and generating more than £26,000 in annual gross revenue. Here's how.

In June 2024, The Moonraker was pre-launched. Over the course of the next two months, the site received 823 signups to a register of interest. Since its formal launch on August 1, 2024, 70 per cent of those signups have, at one time or another, been converted into paying subscribers.

Market research in Swindon - based on a combination of fan surveys, the club's average attendances, an approximation of global following, and the local newspaper's reach, circulation and digital subscriber count - indicated that we should expect a window of between 300 and 800 paying subscribers for The Moonraker.

Swindon Town have an average home league attendance of just under 7,000 in 2024/25, with around 4,000 of these holding season tickets. The town itself has a population of around 220,000.

The Moonraker's subscriber base reached 500 in 30 days, and has remained above that mark since. Sixty-five per cent of The Moonraker subscribers pay monthly, and 35 per cent have annual subscriptions.

The Moonraker's subscriber base represents between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of the total number of local paper, the Swindon Advertiser's digital subscribers. The Moonraker is currently run part-time (approximately 1.5 days per week) by one editor/reporter.

The Moonraker treats subscribers with a personal touch. They are referred to as members, and have regular direct contact with editor Sam Morshead. They contribute to the editorial direction of the site, propose subjects to be covered, and their feedback directly informs how the site is built.

The site itself is free from intrusive advertising - no autoplay videos, no popups, no spam listings, no need to complete a survey to read the rest of an article - and is fast and reliable across all browsers and devices.

It is branded in a way that appeals to its small, target demographic - using a legendary local character in the form of a moonraker - and trades out the need to generate a volume of clicks for the need to deliver valuable journalism.

During its first six months, it has broken news, secured exclusive interviews, presented in-depth analysis of subjects as diverse as football strategy and stadium disrepair, and provided intelligent, long-form writing - the likes of which has been increasingly abandoned by the large-scale publishers entrusted with our historic regional newsrooms.

With a focus on value over volume - there are days when it does not publish at all, and the site averaged between 1 and 2 articles per day across its first six months - The Moonraker has maneuvered itself into the forefront of Swindon fans' attention.

The Moonraker is projected to make more than £26,000 in gross revenue in 2024/25. This includes a significant number of readers on discounted introductory annual subscriptions.

Based on the existing retention rate achieved by the site on a month-by-month basis (~93%), subscription revenues are anticipated to rise to more than £30,000 in 2025/26. This is well within the average expected annual salary for local reporters in 2025. And there's more to come.

Visit the Moonraker

Local audiences are loyal

The Moonraker's retention rate among its monthly subscribers was 93% across its first six months. The audience has responded to being treated seriously, and given a quality, accessible media outlet. Build it and they will come.

Small audiences are monetisable

The Moonraker's catchment area was always going to be modest. But with CounterPress cutting out traditional local media overheads, the site is projected to gross more than £26,000 in its first year, well within the bounds of the average UK local journalist's salary in 2025.

Journalists have brand power

Our editor in Swindon, Sam Morshead, had an established local audience given previous work in the region. CounterPress enabled Sam to use his personal standing, and the trust his audience have in him as an individual, to deliver a media brand that resonated locally.