New app will deliver no-spin news

A new app has been launched to deliver no-spin news, tailored to the place where you live. Just The Facts, available now at the app store or through Google Play, has been created by a team of designers and developers at Shropshire-based Yarrington Limited.

Managing director Mark Allsop said: “The 2020 Coronavirus pandemic has changed the public perception of online news forever. Fake news and false rumour has undermined the best efforts of the Government to disseminate factual information through traditional and digital channels.

“Just The Facts aims to deliver hyper-local news stories without editorial comment or bias, in a unique and contemporary manner.”

So how does it work? Mark explained: “Every day, data journalists take published statistics from UK government departments, local authorities and other organisations to create data-driven news stories. These hyper-local stories are generated quickly and accurately, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools which disseminate validated statistics into information relevant to you, and where you live.”

In the launch version of Just The Facts, people can search for stories generated by Government departments, plus the NHS, police service, local government and other media across a range of subject areas such as health, transport, crime, the environment, and housing.

They simply have to enter their postcode, which allows the app to generate the stories most relevant to their area.

Just The Facts is being run on a not-for-profit basis, and any revenue generated through advertising and sponsorship – which is welcome – will be invested in expanding the service to cover more subjects, such as sport, or entertainment. Any profits will be shared with grass roots charities.

Mike Anderson, a former managing director of News Group Newspapers and founder of Chelsea Apps, is among those collaborating with the Yarrington team on the project.

He said: “Traditional media such as local newspapers have seen a huge decline with falling revenues; an industry which was already struggling to survive before the pandemic is now facing an uncertain future. Exciting new models for the delivery of news have arrived, and making them scaleable will be our next challenge.

“The new editors in chief are the people who manage the context and placement of content into distribution, and can then write the commercial narrative around that content to optimise it. We know that news algorithms are great at stirring emotion, but not so great at sharing facts. The result is often a distorted sense of reality. Just the Facts is different. It’s news, but not as you know it – no opinion, no bias, and local to you.”

Just The Facts is in the app store and on Google Play now. For more details, see https://jtf.news, email hello@yarrington.co.uk, or call 01743 234910, or 07710 516227

Pictured: Just the Facts, the new app delivering hyper-local news stories