The Mill was launched during the Covid-19 lockdown by me, Joshi Herrmann, to give Greater Manchester a different kind of news coverage. At the start, it was just me, but now we have a wonderful team working for us across three cities. I have worked as a journalist for a decade, including reporting for The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph and The Evening Standard. You can read some of my Mill stories here, including my long read about the tensions between the residents of New Islington and the old Ancoats.

Our senior editor is Sophie Atkinson, who is both a brilliant writer (read her strange and eery piece about Burnage Garden Village) and a fantastic editor, who comes up with many of our ideas and does lots of the work to improve our stories before they go out. Sophie often writes our biggest cultural pieces, like her examination of the new Aviva Studios when it opened, but she also writes beautiful features, like her piece about hunting for Salford’s lost “secret garden”. Sophie also writes cultural stories for some of the biggest publications on earth (even bigger than The Mill), including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The Mill

Mollie Simpson is one of our two staff writers on The Mill. Mollie was one of the first ever freelance writers for The Mill when she was still a student at the University of Manchester in 2020, filing dramatic tales from inside the campus during the pandemic. She joined us on staff in July 2021 and has since become known for her scoopy reporting style which often turns up new details that no one has reported before, like her rare interview with the elusive and powerful Peel Group or her scoop about a Saudi property developer and a burned-down pub. Her investigation into a spiking in the Northern Quarter was praised in parliament in a debate about sexual violence.

Our other Mill staff writer is Jack Dulhanty, who grew up in Salford and joined us after finishing his journalism course in January 2022. Jack is best known for his investigative long reads and profiles that dig deep into a company or person, and since he joined the company he’s become the leading chronicler of what goes on inside Manchester’s hospitality industry. His long read about the Michelin-star restaurant Mana was a huge hit, as was his piece about Mark Garner, the founder of Manchester Confidentials. In 2023, he wrote a penetrating two-part profile of the nightlife impresario Sacha Lord.