Hello Reader,
What is IrishCycle.com? At its core, IrishCycle.com is independent journalism covering the resurgence of cycling in Ireland. It’s basically an online newspaper covering news and analyses of cycling and related issues. There are others already focused on cycling as a sporting activity, so, IrishCycle.com covers mainly cycling as a means of transport and greenways.
As well as mainly focusing on cycling, IrishCycle.com also regularly covers pedestrian and public transport issues, road safety, and climate action relating to cycling. Cycling as transport doesn’t exist in a slio and nor should IrishCycle.com’s coverage.
When most media outlets can only scratch the surface on cycling and related issues, IrishCycle.com’s goal is to use journalistic backing to give the issues the space and detail needed.
This website is often the first with the news on cycling-related law changes, cycle routes and other projects, bicycle sharing, road safety issues, bicycle parking and security, and where different levels of government have failed to implement their own policy. Our analysis looks at the details of what has gone wrong or what can be done to stop repeating failures. But as well as highlighting what’s wrong, IrishCycle.com also strives to highlight good design and examples of progress.
IrishCycle.com is edited by me, Cian Ginty. I’ve had freelance work published in nearly every national newspaper in the Republic of Ireland as well as a few magazines and a number of national and international online publications. My training is also in journalism, with a BA (Hons) in Journalism from Dublin City University, and HDip in Print Journalism from Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE).
A quick history: The website started in 2009 under the name Cycling in Dublin, before it was renamed to reflect a national focus. Under the ‘Cycling in Dublin’ name, two free newspapers were published for National Bike Week in 2012 and 2013. In November 2021, IrishCycle.com took the full plunge into trying the reader-funded model and the adventure is ongoing.
In the first two years of running IrishCycle.com as a full-time reader-funded publication, its reach has grown from 370,000 views and 190,000 visitors in 2021 to 790,000 views and over 540,000 visitors up to the middle of September in 2023.
What does reader-funded mean? With the fluxation in advertising and the disruption of the internet, the funding of journalism is changing. There are examples, big and small, which show that the reader-funded or listener-funding model can work to support journalism — from the Dublin Inquirer and The Guardian to many podcasts. IrishCycle.com follows the open model, which means there’s no paywall at all.
Subscribers are needed to give our journalism a dependable base of support. Generally, subscribers see the benefit of keeping this website open for all to read, allowing its journalism to reach more people.
In 2022, its first full year of reader-funded journalism, IrishCycle.com had well over half a million views, and just under 380,000 readers in the year or an average of over 31,000 readers per month. In the middle of June 2023, IrishCycle.com had already surpassed the number of views and readers for the whole of the previous year. The second full year is now pushing towards a million views.
We know our readers include people who cycle and those who don’t. Our readers include everybody from those with a passing interest to politicians, officials, and campaigners for and against changes to our streets and roads who are invested in the issues.
It’s part of the open reader-funded model that a small percentage of readers will see the value of keeping this website open enough to subscribe, but please consider being one of those people and subscribe today.
Thank you for reading,
Cian Ginty
Editor, IrishCycle.com