You scratch our back, we'll scratch yours

Dear Post readers — we don’t normally darken your doors on a Wednesday, your traditional Day of Rest from high quality local journalism. But we’re making an exception today to share an exciting announcement.

The Post has been built, in large part, by thousands of you recommending us to friends, family members and the utterly uninterested teenage waiters at your local Chinese. We don’t have a vast marketing budget or a big team, and we wouldn’t have anywhere near 20,000 readers on our mailing list if it wasn’t for your generous sharing and hawking.

Your reward for that help has been significant: our enduring love and the meteoric growth of your favourite local news outlet. But from today, there will be some more tangible rewards for signing up friends: free months of Post membership and even an exclusive Post tote bag.

Our technological proficiency has risen to a level that we can now track the new signups you bring us, as long as you do so using a “Share” or “Refer a friend” button, or you use your unique referral link (sadly, it can’t track signups if you just forward the email, unless you also share your referral link when you forward, which you should).

We have a leaderboard up and running showing which readers have already signed up friends. We expect it to become fiercely competitive in the weeks ahead, with Post readers waking up in the middle of the night to refresh the link. What we won’t accept is any unpleasantness between competitors in the comments.

Here’s how it works

1. Share The Post. When you use your unique referral link, or a referral or “Share” button on any post, you'll get credit for any new signups we get. You can send the link in a text, email, or share it on social media with friends. One of the most effective things we’ve seen in the past is when readers share a link in their local Facebook group with a little description of why they love The Post.

2. Earn prizes. When several friends use your referral link to subscribe (free or paid), you’ll get these excellent rewards:

🥇 3 referrals: One month of Post membership (value: £7)

🥈 5 referrals: Three months of Post membership (value: £21)

🥉 10 referrals: Our exclusive, never-released-before Post tote bag (value: priceless)

The free months of subscription will be sent to you automatically via email. The tote bags will be lovingly packaged and sent with a card from Abi and Lisa.

Here is how the nascent leaderboard is looking right now.

Ok, let’s do this. Huge thanks in advance for your help. We’re really looking forward to seeing your tweets, Facebook posts and other shares. Blow up that group chat. Light up your local Facebook group. Getting lots of new people onto our list is a huge priority for us in the next couple of months and there’s nothing more powerful than a personal recommendation. Thank you.