Iliffe Media / Cambridge Independent

Cambridge Independent

The Cambridge Independent has had an incredible year, supporting our community, enhancing our reputation and breaking major stories in the region.

We have become the region’s go-to newspaper for informed analysis, debate and comment, leading the way in discussions over Cambridge’s under-pressure transport, housing and healthcare infrastructure. As reader Ian Richard volunteered as we reached 300 issues: “Not only has the title survived, but it has flourished and evolved as part of the expanding Iliffe stable, at a time when many others have bitten the dust, to become a market leader, with its formula of award-winning local news, local sports, culture, health and education content for the area despite the Covid curse.” Throughout the pandemic, we kept residents informed with the most detailed, informative graphic-led coverage available of the impact locally online and in print. We worked hard to drive up vaccination rates and covered the impact on our hospitals - exclusively revealing that Addenbrooke’s was privately considering sending patients to London because it could not cope. We helped those with long Covid through an exclusive interview with a patient about her tortuous ordeal, which helped dozens find a solution to ease their symptoms. Meanwhile, we successfully campaigned with Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust to raise £1.5million for a surgical robot. We joined with Cambridge University Hospitals in paying thanks to extraordinary healthcare staff by supporting the first CUH Awards, including a Public Choice category voted for by our readers. We celebrated the brilliance of our region with our hugely popular Science and Technology Awards, supported by the likes of AstraZeneca and Illumina, backed smaller businesses with our Cambridgeshire SME Business Awards, and celebrated children’s bravery with the Inspirational YoungStars Awards. Readers can rely on us to dig deep. When hundreds of sites were put forward for development during the Local Plan process, our online interactive map coverage was followed by extensive in-paper analysis - divulging every additional site put forward. We marked the Queen’s Jubilee with an enormous 19-page supplement of local pictures. When marking Her Majesty’s death, our 13 pages of coverage featured insight and pictures from all her visits, local expert analysis of her reign and eye-catching, exclusive pictures from Cambridge’s proclamation ceremony. We are the partner of choice for all the major cultural events in the area. And our sports coverage champions equality and diversity, while offering in-depth insight through feature-length interviews to supplement the match action. Carefully curating all our content into a beautifully-designed, stitched and trimmed newspaper, with colour-changing masthead, we offer our journalists and array of columnists room to breathe and our top-drawer photographer space to shine. And it’s working. In the financial year to April 2022, we grew our newspaper sales by 23 per cent, while growing our paid-for digital subscriptions and online audience. Meanwhile, we continue to innovate. Our drone photography supplement of Year 6 school leavers proved hugely popular. And through digital subscriptions, we offer readers our e-edition, our full archive, access to our other titles, additional content and premium website access.