September 2024 marks five years since Louise D’Costa took over the reins of the Caterham & District Independent from long-time editor Julia Church.
After 18 years working at the BBC, Louise decided she needed a change of career, something which would allow her to spend more time at home with her three children. When, on her commute home from London one evening, she saw a Facebook post from Julia which said she was looking to sell the paper, Louise didn’t hesitate to pick up the phone to find out more
Fast forward to September 2019, and her new venture began. It was an incredibly steep learning curve for her, but Louise pulled together a team which included a designer, reporters, and a small army of paper boys and girls ready to walk the streets distributing her new paper. The Caterham & District Independent relaunched in December that year.
Louise had been prepared for challenges as she took on this new world of local journalism, but she hadn’t been expecting one quite as huge as the global pandemic, which took hold in early 2020. Having begun to build up relationships with local advertisers, Louise was hit by the fallout of their businesses being forced to pause or even cease trading.
Despite the difficulties, Louise kept the paper going. In 2022, the decision was made to widen the paper’s scope by covering the whole of the district, and it was relaunched as The Tandridge Independent. A year later it had a design refresh too, giving it the distinctive and modern look it has today.
To mark both our five-year celebrations, and the 200th edition of the paper since it began in 2006, September 2024 also sees the official launch of the Tandridge Independent Support Fund, our way of being able to give something else to the community we represent.
We are delighted to announce that the fund has already received its first large donation, thanks to an extremely generous Tandridge businessman. This means that we will be able to give out our first grants before the end of the year.
Individuals, charities and not-for-profit groups and organisations are invited to apply for grants of up to £150 for specific projects and appeals by emailing funding@tandridgeindependent.com.
Further information, including the criteria for receiving a grant, can be found here.
We welcome donations of any size to the Tandridge Independent Support Fund. You can donate by visiting justgiving.com/thetandridgeindependentsupportfund
