North Squared Media is celebrating a landmark month following the exceptional launch of Rochdale Times and significant audience growth across several digital news brands in partnership with Crosby Associates Media and Prolific North.

The debut of Rochdale Times, which launched April 1 in response to the closure of Rochdale Online, has surpassed all expectations, clocking up more than 325,000 views across platforms in its first month and earning widespread praise from readers, community leaders, and businesses across the borough.

The site, developed and edited by North Squared founder Karl Holbrook, with Crosby Associates Media, was created to ensure Rochdale retained a strong, independent and positive local voice. In just four weeks, Rochdale Times has published more than 120 stories, championed major local campaigns, and built strong early commercial foundations. It has also secured partnerships with key local institutions such as Hopwood Hall College and Rochdale Riverside.

Karl Holbrook said: “We’ve always believed there’s a better way to do local news. What we’ve seen in Rochdale proves that belief. The response has been overwhelming and incredibly humbling. We’ve built a tiny, growing newsroom that celebrates the borough and gives a platform to people, places and ideas that matter.”

The launch is part of a wider audience development strategy between North Squared Media and Crosby Associates, which is already generating major uplifts across the publisher’s national portfolio which saw its previous audience record smashed by a whopping 70%. In April alone:

• Build News recorded a 281% increase in traffic
• Housing Executive saw a 12% uplift
• Homes Magazine grew 24% month-on-month

Nick Fellows, Managing Director of Crosby Associates Media, said: “The early results speak for themselves, but it’s the deeper impact that really excites us for the long term.”

North Squared Media’s first major contract was taking on an audience development project with Prolific North, the leading news, jobs and events hub for the media, digital, marketing, tech and creative sectors in the North of England. Karl has recently extended his Consulting Editor role with the brand and in the first four months of the year the site has seen a major uplift in traffic as well as the launch of major editorial initiatives such as the Graft series, digging deep into the tech economy in the North.

Since joining Prolific North:

• Page views up +192% between Jan and April compared to the previous three months
• Unique Users have seen a +53% increase over same period
• All key referrers up: Search +110%; Direct +145%; Social +42%

Karl said: “It’s been an honour working with the Prolific North team and the results have be absolutely brilliant. I can’t wait to see where we go next.”