Mr MacLeod joined the good and the great in Berlin last week, at the 94th annual International News Media Association’s Global Media Awards.

“I wanted to go to meet other people doing similar things. There aren’t many people doing similar things, I discovered.”

Those “similar things”, Mr MacLeod goes on to tell me, is a passionate commitment to curating local news.

(Image: Edinburgh Minute)

“To win,” he remarks, “is the biggest thing to happen in my career.”

After two decades in journalism and tech, including stints at STV , Channel 4, Meta and Instagram, that is high praise indeed.

So how did this soft-spoken Scot parlay a simple idea into a multi-platform daily newsletter with more than 30,000 subscribers?

It began in the winter of 2022.

“I was lucky enough to have a couple weeks off at Christmas and I thought about what I would rather be doing,” he quips. “20 years on from my first job in local news, I missed that connection and how journalists help people to solve problems.

“I realised that this city doesn’t need more original journalism, the readers need help to find it,” he tells me. “Friends of mine who were working in local news said they were worried about referrals. It’s hard to get your work seen as a journalist.” 

So, in March 2023, The Edinburgh Minute was born.

Every morning, he gets up at 5 am and opens 100 tabs of information on his computer.

Sounds like a lot? He uses data from 300 websites for The Minute’s sister newsletter in London, The London Minute .

Mr MacLeod sees himself as a custodian of journalism rather than a producer.

“I do about four or five original pieces a year,” he notes. “But when something comes my way, I put my old reporter hat on.

“Many of the things I write about relate to the scrutiny of the public pound. It annoys me when people don’t pay tax. I value the pound even more now that I work for myself.”

I should mention now that several months after starting The Minute , Mr MacLeod gave up his corporate job at Meta to curate the newsletter full-time. 

He says it was a gamble, but one which has paid off. He draws his salary from reader subscriptions — thousands pay £5 a month to support the newsletter, which is also available free of charge.  

He explains the thinking behind his decision not to host advertisements on his site.

“Adverts were one of the recent people who told me they didn’t read the local news. As a journalist that was very upsetting. 

“When I started the newsletter, I was still working at Meta , so there was no reason to monetise the newsletter.

“I never planned to, but one of my friends suggested I give people the option to pay and keep it free, so I gave it a go.

“Sure enough it has been three years and almost 1000 editions. I was able to quit my job … and decide I want to have faith in this and in my audience.”

With a wide variety of stories available online each morning, from traditional brands like The Herald and The Scotsman to local websites and forums, how does Mr MacLeod pick the pieces he wants to curate? 

“My criteria is safety first. If a story is about something which might make people unsafe, then I put it at the top of the list.

“I am informed by my traditional nose for news …. but I am mindful that we are all bombarded by awful things [on] social media.

Laura van der Hoeven (c), with Herald editor Catherine Salmond, and Michael MacLeod of the Edinburgh Minute.The Herald and Edinburgh Minute partnered during our Future of Edinburgh series last year. (Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times)

“I try to mix in good news or better news as well so that it is a true reflection of what is going on.”

I ask Mr MacLeod about the community notice board angle of The Minute , something he is keen to speak about.

“This is my favourite part,” he beams. “It came about because readers were contacting me with notices on different emails and platforms and DMs.

“It was a nice problem to have, so I started collecting information via a Google Form, but even that got clunky. 

“I needed to figure out a way to make it better for people to send things in.”

So working with a developer, Mr MacLeod used a tool called Town Spot to create “Edinburgh’s new people-powered community noticeboard”. 

It is a simple calculus, he explains. 

“When you send something in, it gets categorised as an event or news or notice. The information goes onto a calendar and a map as well.”

As our conversation draws to a close, I ask Mr MacLeod to reflect on his time editing The Minute , and what its future might hold.

“The feedback I get is better than getting paid,” he says. “It is the best job I have ever had.

He goes on — “What do we mean by community? At its heart it is getting people together over a shared interest or passion. The noticeboards reflect what people want their city to look like.”

What is next for The Minute , now officially the best local newsletter in the world?

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“The only plans I have got are about tomorrow’s edition and helping other people to replicate this format where other people live,” he says.

“I have helped to develop 100 new titles across the world … for free, not as a consultancy or another.  

“It is validating to see the global news award. Some [journalists] were frosty about The Minute at first, but it is there to help them.

“It is a lot of work,” he notes. “More than I expect, but if people are happy to keep paying, I am happy to keep doing it.”