People keen to pay for truly local news, new PINF report finds

Credit: Gino Crescoli from Pixabay

The local news sector has been struggling for years, with a decline in revenue, readership and the number of newsrooms. According to The Cairncross Review, the number of local papers in the UK fell from 1,303 in 2007 to 982 a decade later, and it likely accelerated since then.

When local papers close, political polarisation in the community goes up and civic engagement drops, according to the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) which published a new report Media Wealth Building in partnership with NewsNow.

To find a solution to the current crisis, the two organisations held six workshops across the four UK nations where they brought together local people, businesses and stakeholders. The participants were given the opportunity to design a Local News Plan for their area, that explored what they want from their news providers but also what they are prepared to contribute.

The communities pointed to some obvious problems with the current provision of local news: the lack of physical presence of reporters and newsrooms in the area; low interest from younger audiences; lack of diversity of voices; problems with connectivity that affect the consumption of digital news; and no sustainable revenue model.

None of these findings is new but they bring home a few truths that local news providers cannot afford to ignore.

First of all, local news needs to be truly local and relevant to the community. For too long, commercial news providers have been chasing clicks and stories that would perform well on social media, losing sight of why local news exists in the first place. People want to see reporters being physically present on the ground or even have local news "hubs" that would bring citizens and journalists together to discuss local stories.

Independent news providers are often better embedded in the community but they are also the ones who struggle financially while burning themselves out with long hours and low pay.

"Local people are not necessarily looking for a huge volume
of news," the report reads.

"They simply want engaging stories that help them to understand and navigate their community."

That is easier said than done as old models of financing local news through advertising are disrupted but there are no credible, sustainable new models to replace them. When previously advertising money would stay in the community, with local businesses advertising in the area, today it goes to Google and Facebook, leaving the newsrooms struggling.

The workshops revealed that local residents are interested in paying for news that is relevant to them and that helps them better connect with their area. The money is out there, conclude the authors of the report, but local publishers need to find new ways to match resources and opportunities.

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