The owner of Shepton Mallet Nub News has given an insight into the business in an industry-leading podcast.

Nub News CEO, Karl Hancock, was interviewed recently by the PHA Group for its series of 'Ten minutes with…' podcasts with successful entrepreneurs.

He gave a short, but fascinating background to the business, revealing how it started following a meeting with an old university friend who had developed the first online nubs, but has since developed with two rounds of City funding into a thriving start-up.

There are now plans to launch more than 700 Nub News sites across the UK in the next few years, complementing the ones already launched in this region in Shepton Mallet, Midsomer Norton, Glastonbury, Wells and Frome.

Karl talks about how Nub News is designed to help towns rediscover their local identity through providing a hyper-local online news service that's free of slow pop-up adverts, fake news, paywalls and clickbait.

He said: "We are a hyper-local online newspaper which is trustworthy and pleasant to read. We are going back to what local newspapers were like 25 years ago - providing the staples like good local news, obituaries, classifieds, property, jobs."

In the interview Karl goes on to explain that Nub News launches websites in smaller towns – typically with between 5,000 and 100,000 population – and encourages 'local champions' from within the local community to self-publish news and What's On events. This is complementary to the news the local journalists provide.

Anyone with a stake in their town or village, from sports clubs to councillors, charities to local businesses, can contribute content using 'Nub It' buttons on every website.

Once submitted, stories are checked by a local, experienced journalistic team before being published.

Added Karl: "When people come on to one of our websites, they know it is going to be about their town. They can find local content written for us by local people themselves. We want to and need to build trust."

Each local Nub News region has its own team of journalists and, with expansion plans already underway, Nub News is currently recruiting fully-trained, experienced reporters as well as trainees.

Prior to launching Nub News, Karl spent 26 years in the City, London, advising funding managers from all over the world. He worked at Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Berenberg Bank, helping to bring more than 150 private companies to the stock market.

He spent time with the senior management of Domino's Pizza and Rightmove and spent more than a decade specialising in analysing companies with a value of between £100 million and £3 billion.

To find out more about what Nub News is trying to do in Shepton Mallet and elsewhere, you can listen to the 'Ten Minutes with Karl Hancock, founder of Nub News' podcast by clicking on the red button below.