I was born in Earl's Court, and in 2015 I founded The Court, a free arts, culture and community newspaper for the neighbourhood. Published quarterly and delivered free, it has distributed more than 250,000 copies and reached an estimated 850,000 readers. Now I would like to bring it back.

Earl's Court is changing fast, and a changing neighbourhood needs a shared voice. Local news has thinned out across the country. When it goes, people lose more than headlines: they lose the stories of their neighbours, the listings for the gallery round the corner and the sense that they belong to the same place.

The Court was always about that sense of place. It gave space to artists, musicians, writers, local businesses and residents who rarely appear anywhere else. Working with the Earl's Court Business Forum on rebranding Earl's Court showed me how much the area has to offer, and how much it benefits when that story is told well and told locally.

For many years we tried to fund The Court through local businesses, and that model did not work. It was not because they did not want to support it. The area simply no longer has the footfall and customers it once had. The Earl's Court Exhibition Centre brought millions of people to the neighbourhood every year, and since it closed, local shops, venues and restaurants have had far fewer customers to rely on. Asking them to carry a newspaper on their own was never going to be sustainable, which is why the relaunch looks to patrons of the arts as well.

A free newspaper only stays free if someone believes in it. Patronage gives local artists and creative organisations a platform and an audience, and helps residents, old and new, find out what is happening on their doorstep. It brings footfall to independent shops, venues and restaurants, keeps a record of the neighbourhood's culture as it changes, and connects people of all ages and backgrounds through something they can hold and pass on.

For local commercial partners, support is a way to invest in the place their customers live and work. For patrons of the arts, it is a direct way to keep culture visible and accessible to everyone, not only those who already know where to look.

We are inviting patrons of the arts and local commercial partners to support the relaunch of The Court, planned for 2027. If you care about Earl's Court and would like to be part of its next chapter, I would be glad to hear from you.

A newspaper that works with local business, for the benefit of the whole community, is what profit with purpose looks like on my own doorstep.