About



InChannels Network was set up in 2023 by a number of media industry veterans who recognised that something needed to be done to facilitate local journalism, local commerce and local democracy.

The team used an existing platform developed by one of their number and launched inReading and inCeiriog, covering very different communities and demographics to learn what worked in local media in the 21st century - and what doesn't.

The thesis behind the platform was simple: if you depend on Big Internet (namely Meta and Google) for both audience and advertising revenue, then your business is devalued and dependent on them.

Added to this was the 'circular flow of income' argument whereby local businesses are, ineffect, paying a tax to US shareholders to market to their local community. local businesses pay rent and rates and Amazon benefits.

A key realisation was that distribution has fragmented - content cannot live on a single  master publication, but rather needs to be distributed across a wide range of  third party platforms and outlets which are constantly shifting and changing. Publish once, distribute everywhere.

With the advent of AI the team decided that the existing paltform was not adequate and that a new platform should be developed to capitalise on the new capabilities that AI introduced. So, ICN started developing bLocal in April 2025. inReading was ported onto the new platform in May 2026 and immediately saw its traffic increase eightfold, excluding bots.

Now we are gearing up to launch https://bLocal.ai to help bring back a flourishing local media sector in the UK and beyond.



What Has Failed ?

Our team has been involved with successful and failed local media initiatives in the UK over the past forty years and more - from the launch of Metro in London and Golwg 360 in Wales to Jeremy Hunt's local TV initiative of the 2000s and in the closure of local media titles across the country.

It is our contention that it isn't journalism that has failed - it's the commercial and distribution models that support journalism.

This is what our new https://bLocal.ai platform specifically addresses.



The Team


Simon Edgley

Simon Edgley

formerly spent his career with Reach plc / Trinity Mirror, ending up running their business in the South East, Devon & Cornwall. He has extensive experience of local media in the UK having worked in many regions, including Wales and the North East. Simon is heavily involved with Reading's local business initiative, Pride of Reading.

Gary McNish

Gary McNish

has extensive experience in the publishing industry across most media channels. He currently runs his own Media and Marketing consultancy business GaryMc Associates. Before setting up his own business he had MD roles at two of the largest regional publishing groups , Newsquest and Trinity Mirror and was also a Director of Mediaforce, the largest Independently owned media operation in the UK

Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson

is the CEO of The DOTTT, which provides advice to businesses and connects small start-ups with larger corporations. Mike has worked as the Managing Director of News Group Newspapers and the MD of Metro and London Evening Standard. He has also held Marketing Director roles at phd and cia.60. He is a Senior Advisor to Imagine AR Inc. and FTI Consulting, and a Peer Advisor to Wavelength. He was the founder of Chelsea Apps, the UK's largest privately held app consultancy and development company.

Damian Ryan

Damian Ryan

was until recently a Corporate Finance Partner at Moore Kingston Smith in London, UK, where he lead the Media and Technology team. He has worked in various media fields throughout his career, including publishing, broadcast, outdoor advertising, and digital media, and sold his last media business in 2005. Since then, he has been working in M&A and has published the best-selling series of books "Understanding Digital Marketing". Damian has been honored with several awards, including the Golden Spider Award for Digital Excellence in 2019

Iolo Jones

Iolo Jones

is the CEO of Kwedl parent, Vidlogics, a no-code platform that enables anyone to build a successful business on the internet. Previously, he founded and led several companies involved in video over IP, web integration, rights management and multimedia, taking streaming media pioneer Narrowstep public on NASDAQ in 2005. Iolo conceived and founded Wales' largest Welsh language website, Golwg360.

Paddy Halfhide

Paddy Halfhide

is a Marketing Director based in the Greater Reading Area. He is the Director of Simple Creative Marketing Ltd, which specializes in assisting companies to maximize their return on investment and marketing impact. Paddy was the Marketing Director at Nirvana Spa for 11 years, where he was responsible for web design, creative and business strategy.