From country pub to Carrow Road - finding our new life in Norwich 🌇

Greetings Seekers!

It's been a while, but it's Shaun here with a Saturday Seeker update.

Firstly, although we've been 'off air' for a while, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes as we've taken the time to get The Seeker in a place where we can start to stand on our own two feet.

You'll remember from last year that funding from Innovate UK had helped us deliver twice weekly newsletters to you every Wednesday and Saturday.

Waiting game ⏱

Once that funding ended in December a practical issue I faced was not only did I no longer have the budget to commission freelance writers, but I had to return to other work and so didn't have the capacity to put in the kinds of hours I had been doing.

That said I wasn't keen to churn out pieces for the sake of it - not least because I felt it went against our promise to deliver quality long-form articles.

And so we've had to bide our time.

However, I also know that the longer we're away, the harder it might be to get you all back into the regular reading habit, so the aim of today is to start to crank things up again.

We won't be able to jump straight back in to where we were (unless we get a rush of people willing to 'Buy Me A Coffee' 🙏) but the aim is start some 'pop-up' publishing when we can, until we get there.

So watch this space!

Handing over 🤝

Also I need to tell you that after doing such a brilliant job getting The Seeker off the ground, our founder Tom has now stepped away.

Unfortunately for us (but very fortunately for him) he needs to focus on being a brilliant full-time journalist - particularly given it's a General Election year and all that - and also looking after his young family.

That means we've also had to do a bit of formal stuff, with Tom passing over control to a team which includes me, as well as my former EDP colleague David Powles, Greg Smith, Amanda Bunn and Annelise Savill.

You'll get to hear a bit more about each of them and the new board we are setting up over the coming few weeks as well as why they are supporting The Seeker.

But for now our focus is on finalising a business plan and securing finance so that we can restart our newsletters and produce more of the in-depth journalism you told us you value so much.

Story time 🔎

On that note, please tell us of any stories you want us to look into and things you want to read about (I'm going to start building up a list as well as catching up with the Seeker emails - sorry if I haven't replied to your messages).

We've also been wondering whether we can 'crowdfund' articles too - so let us know if that is something you would be keen to back us on. We're a start up so any ideas are on the table right now!

And with that in mind and because we've kept you waiting for too long, we've got a piece for you today.

Today's edition 📰

With the Ukraine War now entering its second year we hear from Yevheniia Ralchenko, and how she and her mother Olena and brother Andrii found a new life in Norwich.

Since coming to the city, Yev has discovered a passion for writing and is hoping to become a journalist, so we wanted to play a part in helping her reach her goal.

It's quite a tale - and I couldn't help having a 'there but for the grace of God' moment when I read it. See what you think.

Thank you for supporting The Seeker - we'll be back again soon!

Shaun