Birmingham
Cannock
Coventry
Lichfield
Solihull
South Staffs
Tamworth
About us
The YamYam is an automated news and blog aggregation hub for the Black Country, part of a network of local websites based on an original concept developed around the Walsall YamYam which was established by Mark Blackstock in March 2009.
The mission is to provide a comprehensive source of regularly updated local news and blog sites in a simple and easy to scan format, in order to bring a diverse range of local voices to the attention of a wider audience, to facilitate debate around local issues and strengthen local online communities.
The YamYam aims to be politically neutral and provide clearly credited direct links to a range of third-party news and opinion websites whose views may not reflect our own. We are not responsible for the content on these sites and we do not maintain an archive, retain any information about users accessing our sites, nor accept payment for aggregated links. You can read our terms here.
The development of this free aggregation service is largely dependent upon readers telling us about new websites or blogs we may have missed. If you find your views aren’t being represented and you have something to say about your area, then get blogging or send us a link to a local blog. Generally, we can only aggregate websites that have RSS feeds.
Mark Blackstock is a Northern Irishman who has lived around the West Midlands and London for the past 30 years working in print and broadcast journalism. He spent ten years at the Telegraph Group where he was managing editor of the UK’s first online newspaper – telegraph.co.uk. Mark started out in community arts in Walsall, taught media at Matthew Boulton and Sandwell colleges, was involved with Ten.8 Magazine in Hockley and Handsworth and worked with a number of arts and media organisations in Digbeth, Birmingham. Mark has produced factual programmes in the corporate sector, for Channel 4 News, Central TV and Al Jazeera and he currently does consultancy, most recently for the Sun and the Times newspapers.
Paul Daniel is a freelance Yahoo Pipes consultant who built and maintains the website’s feeds. Having worked in exhibitions and IT, Paul is now also a publishing partner in the MyVillage network of websites.
Tim Brown is a freelance developer who built and maintains the websites. Having worked in banking and newspapers he is now a director of Careimages which provides a royalty-free photography library for local authorities and the third sector.
The YamYam and associated sites have been made possible by a whole range of other developers, bloggers, tweeters and readers who have supported them since they started – you know who you are – and you can find many of them talking to each other here…