Evolve Politics is a British
left-wing news and current affairs website created in September 2015.
The website describes itself as "a truly independent, shared equity media outlet, providing incisive news reporting and investigative journalism that highlights and exposes injustice, inequality and unfairness within UK politics, and throughout society in general."
Staff and financing
The website's editorial staff consists of Editor-in-Chief Tom D. Rogers and Senior Editor Jessica Miller. It is funded through paid subscriptions, donations and advertising revenue from the website. For the year to the end of August 2017, Evolve made a turnover of £14,830 and a profit of £4,292.
Evolve state that their average monthly donation is £2.50, and their largest monthly contribution is £10 a month. The organisation also accept one-off donations, with their largest single donor of all-time contributing £500.
Furthermore, Evolve claim on their website that they have "never received any outside funding" and "do not accept paid articles or corporate sponsorships" because they hold their "independence and the ability to express
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
own opinions above any potential financial gain."
In February 2018, then-senior editor Matt Turner became the first pro-Corbyn blogger to successfully join the parliamentary lobby in Westminster. However, in May of the same year, Turner announced that he would be leaving the website in order to take up a role in
public relations, stating that he was "looking forward to making my political points and push forward my ideas without being visible and accessible all the time like a lot of journalists and political commentators have to be".
Content and impact
The website was highly supportive of the
Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and is consequently often compared with other independent pro-Corbyn sites such as ''
The Canary'', ''
Another Angry Voice'' and ''
The Skwawkbox''.
A number of its stories entered the political mainstream due to their viral nature, including a story regarding the Conservative Party's decision to drop a ban on
ivory trade (which had previously been in the party's 2015 manifesto). During this election, most media commentary predicted electoral disaster for the
Labour Party; however, senior editor Matt Turner predicted a
hung parliament in April 2017.
Turner appeared on
BBC Newsnight to discuss his correct prediction, and Newsnight editor
Ian Katz called Evolve Politics "one of a clutch of pro-Corbyn websites which claimed to have their finger closer to the national pulse than traditional media".
[
During the ]2017 general election
This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 November ...
''Evolve'' reached a peak of almost two million monthly views, with a Facebook reach of more than twenty million.Antisemitism Policy Trust
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Ant ...
, writing in the '' New Statesman'' noted that Evolve quoted conspiracy theorists including a 9/11 conspiracy theorist in its commentary on the attack.
Regulation
In November 2017, ''Evolve Politics'' joined the state-approved press regulator IMPRESS.Presidents Club
The Presidents Club Charitable Trust was a British charity known for an annual charity dinner held from 1985 to 2018. The dinner, held usually at The Dorchester hotel in London, was for male guests only and was considered a "mainstay of London's ...
at which widespread sexual misconduct was reported.
Advertising boycott
In early 2019, the anonymous campaign group Stop Funding Fake News
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a British non-profit organisation with offices in London and Washington, DC. It campaigns for big tech firms to stop providing services to individuals who may promote hate and misinformation, i ...
was launched to pressure advertisers not to allow their ads to run on left-wing websites such as ''Evolve Politics'' and The Canary, and the right-wing websites Westmonster
Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 1966) is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign. Banks was previously one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and helped ...
, which has ceased to operate, and the Canadian Rebel News. The campaign was supported by Rachel Riley, who campaigns against the party leadership's handling of allegations of antisemitism within the Labour Party.Sky UK
Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...
would remove adverts on political news stories across all websites, following calls from Riley for the company to stop advertising on Evolve.
References
External links
*{{Official website, https://evolvepolitics.com/
British political websites
Left-wing politics in the United Kingdom
Internet properties established in 2015