A business paper for the companies the business pages ignore
Independent, reader-funded and published every Friday since 2019. We cover firms of 5 to 500 people — which is to say, most of the economy.
Most business journalism is written about a few hundred companies
The financial pages follow the largest listed firms, the biggest funding rounds and the loudest founders. Meanwhile, nine in ten private-sector jobs are at companies nobody writes about.
Ledger started in a spare room in Leeds with a simple idea: report on independent businesses with the same rigour the big papers give to the FTSE. Real numbers, named sources, no press-release journalism.
Six years on we have a newsroom of fourteen, a weekly print edition and a daily briefing read by more than 120,000 owners, managers and advisers.
Six years, one beat
- 120K
- Readers of the daily Briefing
- September 2026
- 312
- Weekly editions published
- Since March 2019
- 14
- Journalists in the newsroom
- Leeds and London
- 0
- Sponsored articles. Ever.
- Our standards
How we report
- 01
Numbers or it didn’t happen
Every claim about performance is backed by accounts, filings or data we can show you. Where we estimate, we say so.
- 02
Named sources
We quote people by name and title. Anonymity is rare, and when we grant it we explain why.
- 03
No paid placement
Advertising is clearly labelled and never touches editorial. The List cannot be bought, and nobody has tried twice.
- 04
Corrections in the open
When we get something wrong, we fix it at the top of the story and log it on our corrections page.
Who writes Ledger
Clara Winslow
Editor-in-Chief
Sets the agenda and edits the List.
Priya Das
Money Editor
Pricing, cash, lending and capital.
Elena Marsh
Leadership Editor
Management, hiring and how decisions get made.
Tom Achterberg
Innovation Correspondent
Automation, AI and the machines on the shop floor.
Hana Okafor
Small Business Reporter
Independents, family firms and the high street.
Marcus Oyelaran
Staff Writer
Features, deals and long-form investigations.
Samuel Adeyemi
Senior Analyst
Data, surveys and the Ledger Report.
Julian Reyes
Lifestyle Editor
Work, rest and the rituals of people who run things.
