Plans for the Midland Goods Shed, as what the newspaper described at the time as “an open amphitheatre for festivals, acoustic gigs and debate, as well as including an intimate restaurant with a changing programme of chefs in residence, an armchair cinema, a 3D printing and fabrication lab”, were developed in 2014 as a physical hub for the newspaper’s online membership scheme. It aims to encourage regular readers to pay up to £600 annually, without charging a subscription to read articles.