tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/local-newspapers-10476/articlesLocal newspapers – The Conversation2024-03-04T13:38:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245892024-03-04T13:38:08Z2024-03-04T13:38:08ZCommunity-based entrepreneurs are leading the way in solving the local news crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578706/original/file-20240228-20-l0td86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C0%2C6679%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Local newspapers have been shuttering at an alarming rate for more than a decade.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-american-businessman-in-suit-reading-royalty-free-image/1349968313">Prostock-Studio/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The local news crisis has led to no end of policy proposals, funding initiatives and angry denunciations of the harm done to journalism by the likes of Craigslist, Google and Facebook. </p>
<p>Ideas for responding to the crisis include paying recent journalism school graduates with state tax revenues to <a href="https://journalism.berkeley.edu/state-funds-berkeley-journalism-25-million-to-strengthen-californias-local-news-coverage/">cover underserved communities</a>, as in California; mandating that state agencies <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2024/02/19/illinois-local-news-legislation-stadelman/">direct half of their spending</a> on advertising to community media, as has been proposed in Illinois; and <a href="https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/the-community-news-and-small-business-support-act-hr-4756-offering-tax-credits-to,244841">creating tax credits</a> that would benefit subscribers, advertisers and publishers, the subject of several federal and state initiatives. </p>
<p>And those are just a few. </p>
<p>Though all of these have some merit, they share a fundamental flaw: They are top-down solutions to problems that differ from one community to another. </p>
<p>There is an old saying that goes back a dozen years to the earliest days of hyperlocal digital news: <a href="https://streetfightmag.com/2011/05/12/authentically-local-declares-local-doesn%E2%80%99t-scale/">Local doesn’t scale</a>. In fact, I’d argue, the real solution to the local news crisis needs to come from the bottom up – from folks at the community level who decide to take their news and information needs into their own hands. </p>
<p>Examples range from relatively large operations such as <a href="https://coloradosun.com/about-us/">The Colorado Sun</a>, a digital startup founded by 10 <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/">Denver Post</a> journalists who became frustrated with the depredations of the Post’s hedge fund owner, Alden Global Capital, to small outlets such as <a href="https://sahanjournal.com/about-sahan-journal">Sahan Journal</a>, a Minnesota-based project that covers the state’s growing African diaspora.</p>
<p>Reinventing community journalism at the grassroots is the theme of <a href="https://whatworks.news/book">“What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate,”</a> written by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenclegg/">Ellen Clegg</a> and me. Clegg is retired from top editing positions at <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/">The Boston Globe</a>, is a co-founder of the digital nonprofit <a href="https://brookline.news/">Brookline.News</a> and teaches journalism at Northeastern University and Brandeis University. <a href="https://camd.northeastern.edu/people/dan-kennedy/">I’m a journalism professor</a> at Northeastern and the author of two previous books on the future of news. </p>
<p>“What Works in Community News” examines about a dozen projects in nine parts of the country. What they have in common is dedicated leadership at the local level – entrepreneurial journalists who are developing new business models on the fly.</p>
<h2>A growing crisis</h2>
<p>There is no question that the local news crisis is real and growing. According to the most recent report by the Local News Initiative, based at Northwestern University’s Medill School, nearly 2,900 newspapers, mostly weeklies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/wealthier-urban-americans-have-access-to-more-local-news-while-roughly-half-of-us-counties-have-only-one-outlet-or-less-220382">have closed</a> since 2005. That’s about a third of the total. </p>
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<p>Weeklies have traditionally served as the beating heart of community journalism, covering local government, schools and neighborhood issues – not to mention more quotidian matters such as weddings, births, deaths and youth activities that can help draw neighbors together. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://medium.com/office-of-citizen/how-we-know-journalism-is-good-for-democracy-9125e5c995fb">plethora of research</a> suggests that communities that lose their local news source suffer from a variety of ills. Voter turnout declines. Fewer people run for political office. There is even what we might call <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-30/when-local-newspapers-close-city-financing-costs-rise">a corruption tax</a>, as local officials who borrow money to build, say, a new fire station or high school have to pay a higher interest rate in places without reliable community journalism. </p>
<p>Perhaps most disturbing is that news consumers now feed their habit with outraged commentary from divisive national outlets, especially cable news, which in turn helps worsen the problem of <a href="https://theconversation.com/republicans-and-democrats-consider-each-other-immoral-even-when-treated-fairly-and-kindly-by-the-opposition-220002">partisan polarization</a> that is ripping us apart. </p>
<p>Folks who attend school board meetings ought to be talking about test scores and teacher salaries. Instead, they are all too often yelling at their friends and neighbors about such Fox News-driven controversies as COVID-19 restrictions, critical race theory and books they want to ban.</p>
<p>So how might a community without an adequate news outlet go about meeting the needs of its residents? </p>
<h2>Entrepreneurs step up</h2>
<p>What happened in Bedford, Massachusetts, is instructive. A suburb of about 14,000 people located northwest of Boston, the town was at one time home to a weekly newspaper called the Bedford Minuteman. That once-robust weekly had by 2012 been downsized by its corporate owner, GateHouse Media, which later merged into Gannett, the U.S.’s largest newspaper chain.</p>
<p>Three members of the League of Women Voters who had been monitoring local government and reporting back to the membership asked themselves: Why not write this up for the benefit of the public?</p>
<p>Thus was born <a href="https://thebedfordcitizen.org/">The Bedford Citizen</a>, one of the projects that we feature in our book. Over the years, the nonprofit website has grown from an all-volunteer operation into a professional news organization, funded through initiatives ranging from voluntary membership fees to an annual glossy guide that’s filled with advertising and mailed to every household in town.</p>
<p>Today, the Citizen has a full-time editor, a part-time reporter and paid freelancers alongside a contingent of unpaid contributors. The Minuteman, meanwhile, faded away and was <a href="https://dankennedy.net/2022/03/17/gannett-goes-a-massive-spree-of-closing-and-merging-weekly-newspapers/">shut down</a> in 2022 under Gannett’s ownership.</p>
<p>In recent years, hundreds of such projects <a href="https://www.lionpublishers.com/about/">have sprung up</a>, both nonprofit and for-profit. Are there enough to offset the several thousand papers that have closed and continue to close? No. But Clegg and I are optimistic about the continued growth of independent local news.</p>
<h2>Helping underserved communities</h2>
<p>One problem that is not easily solved is what to do about <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/wealther-urban-americans-have-access-to-more-local-news/">underserved populations</a>, especially in rural parts of the country and in urban communities of color. </p>
<p>We visited several projects in such areas, and what we found was that the folks who are running them are struggling.</p>
<p>At the <a href="https://www.stormlake.com/">Storm Lake Times Pilot</a>, publisher-editor <a href="https://whatworks.news/2021/11/15/our-latest-contest-features-an-interview-with-art-cullen-editor-of-the-storm-lake-times/">Art Cullen, a Pulitzer Prize winner, told us</a> on our podcast that he and his brother, John, the paper’s president, do not pay themselves a salary and that they’re collecting Social Security. </p>
<p>Wendi C. Thomas, the founder of the award-winning <a href="https://mlk50.com/">MLK50: Justice Through Journalism</a>, in Memphis, Tennessee, began by running up credit card debt, although she was eventually able to attract grant money.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it is in these lower-income communities where some top-down attention is needed. </p>
<p>The most ambitious initiative to support local news through philanthropy is Press Forward, a consortium of more than 20 foundations that will provide independent community news outlets with $500 million over the next five years. That barely scratches the surface of what is needed, though, and the foundations are now attempting to <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2024/press-forward-announces-local-expansion/">leverage that money</a> by raising another $500 million at the local level.</p>
<p>In our view, such efforts should be seen as a supplement rather than as an all-encompassing solution.</p>
<p>Consider, for instance, the NewsMatch program administered by <a href="https://inn.org/">the Institute for Nonprofit News</a>. NewsMatch <a href="https://newsmatch.inn.org/">provides funds</a> to local outlets based on how much they are able to raise on their own. Nonprofit journalism leaders need to educate philanthropists in their own communities that news is worth supporting just as much as youth programs or arts and culture. For-profits need to demonstrate their value to would-be subscribers and advertisers.</p>
<p>What Clegg and I have observed in our reporting across the country is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Anything can work; anything can fail. </p>
<p>Above all, the local news crisis will not be solved by elected officials or national foundations, though they can surely help. Rather, it will be solved – and is being solved – by visionary entrepreneurs at the grassroots who listen to the needs of their communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224589/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Kennedy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As digital news pioneers observed, ‘local doesn’t scale.’ Any solution to the local news crisis is going to involve reporters and editors who are creative and smart about what works for their readers.Dan Kennedy, Professor of Journalism, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2126402023-09-01T12:51:45Z2023-09-01T12:51:45ZLocal journalism: why a tiny news operation could inspire a different approach and is attracting big name support<p>It started as a one-person operation, funded by personal savings and based in a bedroom, with a mission to provide a new format for local news in Manchester, and now The Mill is attracting £350,000 of <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/regional-newspapers/the-mill-invesment/">funding</a> from some big names in journalism including the former BBC director general Sir Mark Thompson.</p>
<p>The sums involved aren’t huge, but the significance for local journalism in the UK should not be underestimated. The Mill is expanding as local newspapers around the UK, <a href="https://www.cjr.org/local_news/local_reporters_decline_coverage_density.php">and the world</a>, <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/reach-to-make-200-redundancies/">are closing down or shedding staff</a>, creating <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/states-main/">news deserts</a> where local issues go unreported. So what is the Mill doing right and could it be a model for a new type of local journalism? </p>
<p>As someone who has worked in local journalism, including the much-missed Liverpool Daily Post, I have watched as newspapers have shut their local offices, <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/most-reach-journalists-work-home-after-covid-19-mail-online-prepares-return-newsroom/">contracted newsrooms</a> and in some cases stopped printing and turned to web-only operations, so the success of The Mill as part of this climate is worth noting. </p>
<p><a href="https://manchestermill.co.uk">The Mill</a> was founded by journalist Joshi Herrmann in 2020, beginning as a local news newsletter for Manchester before expanding into Liverpool with The Post and The Tribune in Sheffield. It has plans to add Birmingham coverage soon.</p>
<p>I have been interested in The Mill from the beginning. When it first launched I invited Herrmann to talk to my journalism students about the project, then very much in its infancy. We spoke on Zoom during the height of the pandemic, my students at home and Herrmann from a motorway service station where he had stopped on his travels.</p>
<p>He outlined the inspiration, the plans he had, the style of journalism he wanted to revive. He was clearly driven and committed.</p>
<p>He also explained the beginnings of The Mill when interviewed on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001812m">BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours</a>, and why he thought there was a gap in the market. He had found himself back in his hometown of Manchester during lockdown and noticed that his <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk">local newspaper, the Manchester Evening News</a>, owned by <a href="https://www.reachplc.com">the UK’s largest commercial news publisher</a> Reach, had shifted away from the “traditional” news and features he remembered from when he was growing up. </p>
<p>He wondered if there was a market for the type of news and features that the UK’s regional press were once so famous for and which they did so well.</p>
<p>So he created a daily newsletter paid for by subscribers who might get only one story a day but it would be detailed, and well researched and something they weren’t reading elsewhere, and worth – he hoped – their time and money.</p>
<p>Latest pieces in <a href="https://www.livpost.co.uk">The Post</a> include an article on Liverpool’s litter problem approached from the perspective of a volunteer litter picker, while another article explains why the city isn’t in the middle of a knife-crime epidemic despite “nine stabbings in five days”.</p>
<p>What started as a one-man operation is now a team of nine and it is advertising <a href="https://millmediaco.uk">three new staff positions at the moment</a>. The Mill has 5,000 paying subscribers and thousands more who read the open-access stories.</p>
<p>The list of investors attracted to The Mill’s model of local journalism is impressive: Nicholas Johnston of <a href="https://www.axios.com">Axios, which operates local news sites in the US</a>, Turi Munthe, founder of photojournalism network Demotix, and David Rosenberg of Snap Inc.</p>
<p>The backer who really stands out is Thompson, former CEO of Channel 4 and CEO of the New York Times and former director general of the BBC. It is a big win for The Mill.</p>
<h2>Change or die</h2>
<p>In the rush to digital and to find an alternative to advertising revenues and physical sales, local newspapers had to adapt or die.</p>
<p>Five years ago, the UK government – with Theresa May as prime minister – commissioned an independent review into UK journalism and in 2019 published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-cairncross-review-a-sustainable-future-for-journalism">The Cairncross Review: a sustainable future for journalism</a>, expressing concerns about the future of national and local newsgathering. </p>
<p>It made for difficult reading. Print sales had halved between 2007 and 2017; print advertising revenues had fallen by 69% and only one in ten people was reading a regional or local printed paper each week.</p>
<p>It also made a number of recommendations, including that online platforms should have a “news quality obligation” to improve trust in the news.</p>
<p>Recently, <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk">the Reuters Digital News Report 2023</a> found that trust in news has fallen, reversing gains made at the height of the pandemic, suggesting this is a continuing problem, but that increasing numbers of people, of all ages, were taking steps to actively find “reliable news”, rather than content sent to them by an algorithm.</p>
<p>The Reuters research also found that only a fifth of respondents said they started their “news journeys” with a website or app, down from 2018, preferring social media as a route.</p>
<p>So, here is the opportunity for news innovators. If apps or websites aren’t working, what can? Once it was a paper boy –- or girl –- now local news can be delivered straight into the inbox, reliably and efficiently, via a newsletter, as The Mill does. Other news operations have since decided <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/regional-newspapers/why-the-future-of-digital-only-local-news-may-be-small-focused-and-based-on-email/">the newsletter model</a> is one that has an audience, and followed Herrmann down that route.</p>
<p>Investment into companies such as The Mill could be the start of a new financial model for wider local journalism. So far, it seems to show that there are still people who want to find out what is going on where they live, and some are prepared to pay for it.</p>
<p>If new players like The Mill continue to grow and thrive, demonstrating that vital online “news quality obligation”, they could help to rebuild trust in local news.</p>
<p>It’s good news for people like me who believe in local journalism, however it is delivered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Heathman is affiliated with The Labour Party. </span></em></p>A Manchester-based local news company is turning heads and attracting a new readership.Kate Heathman, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011312023-03-08T20:56:07Z2023-03-08T20:56:07ZMontreal Gazette: A case for the local ownership of community news media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513834/original/file-20230306-1219-30sx50.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2941%2C1881&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Copies of the 'Montreal Gazette' are shown on a newsstand in Montréal on Feb. 16, 2023. Local Montréal businessman Mitch Garber has expressed interest in buying the newspaper. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Montréalers awoke on Feb. 16 to the news that a local <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/businessman-mitch-garber-pitches-taking-over-montreal-gazette-as-paper-faces-more-cuts-1.6276114">businessman and lawyer was trying to buy the <em>Montreal Gazette</em></a>, the city’s only anglophone daily newspaper.</p>
<p>No doubt many missed this news in the swirl of information at our fingertips, especially considering the <em>Gazette</em> is now a mere shadow of its former self. </p>
<p>The latest indignity the <em>Gazette</em> faced was a series of layoffs. Initially, <a href="https://rover.substack.com/p/postmedia-scales-back-gazette-layoffs">10-12 layoffs were expected</a>, but the hit was scaled back to six after <a href="https://montreal.citynews.ca/2023/02/12/petition-postmedia-montreal-gazette/">public pressure</a>, leaving just <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/advisory-council-will-keep-journalists-in-the-newsroom-at-montreal-gazette-postmedia-1.6287942">32 journalists and three managers</a> covering a metropolitan area of four million.</p>
<p>This marks a tremendous change for the <em>Gazette</em>, whose well-known writers have included <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mordecai-richler">Order of Canada recipient Mordecai Richler</a>. Its fame has even been enshrined in bronze, in the form of a statue of a man reading the newspaper that stands in one of the city’s anglophone enclaves.</p>
<h2>News industry challenges</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A statue of a man leaning against a building and reading a newspaper" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513822/original/file-20230306-14-igwd0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513822/original/file-20230306-14-igwd0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513822/original/file-20230306-14-igwd0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513822/original/file-20230306-14-igwd0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513822/original/file-20230306-14-igwd0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513822/original/file-20230306-14-igwd0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513822/original/file-20230306-14-igwd0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue in Westmount, Que. of a man reading the ‘Montreal Gazette.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <em>Gazette</em> has suffered the familiar challenges of the news industry. It hasn’t been locally owned since 1968 <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/montreal-gazette">when it was bought by Southam</a>. A list of chain owners followed: Hollinger acquired it in 1996, Canwest in 2000 and Postmedia in 2010. </p>
<p>In 2014, 100 people lost their jobs when printing was outsourced. But the real damage came after Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey hedge fund, acquired a two-thirds stake in Postmedia in 2016. The <em>New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/business/media/hedge-fund-chatham-mcclatchy-postmedia-newspapers.html">reported that Postmedia cut 1,600 jobs across Canada</a> in the first four years of Chatham’s ownership. </p>
<p>As a society we have expressed concern about newspapers that have closed — 470 of them since 2008 in Canada, <a href="https://localnewsmap.geolive.ca/">according to the Local News Research Project</a>. But we are increasingly paying attention to the growth of <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert/loss-of-local-news/the-rise-of-the-ghost-newspaper/">“ghost newspapers”</a> — publications that still exist, but whose newsgathering activities have shrivelled to almost nothing. </p>
<p>The <em>Gazette</em> is certainly not a ghost, producing lots of excellent local coverage every day, but it’s undoubtedly trending ghostward. We also know life is worse in communities with less local news: local journalism <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2013.834253">increases voter turnout</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108950930">reduces polarization</a> and <a href="https://www.cjr.org/q_and_a/investigative-reporting-value.php">saves communities money</a>. </p>
<h2>Mitch Garber’s offer</h2>
<p>This brings us back to the businessperson who offered to purchase the <em>Gazette</em> in February, Mitch Garber. He is an investor and a minority owner of the Seattle Kraken NHL team. </p>
<p>When news of the recent layoffs broke, the <em>Gazette</em> staffers <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/02/16/prominent-businessman-mitch-garber-pitches-local-ownership-for-montreal-gazette.html">reached out to him</a> for help. In a series of since-deleted tweets on Feb. 15, Garber declared he would consider buying the newspaper.</p>
<p>“I never really wanted to own a newspaper,” <a href="https://www.iheartradio.ca/cjad/audio/mitch-garber-explains-importance-of-montreal-gazette-calls-out-advisory-council-1.19260566">he told CJAD radio</a>. “Do I have a plan? No. But I want to do what I can to help,” he <a href="https://rover.substack.com/p/knives-out-at-the-montreal-gazette">told <em>The Rover</em></a>. “I am a capitalist, I believe in smart investments and I know that investing in the print news business isn’t a big money-making investment. But some things are more important than money and I think this city needs an English language daily.” </p>
<p>Postmedia CEO Andrew MacLeod <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/postmedia-ceo-not-sure-it-s-the-right-time-for-local-ownership-of-montreal-gazette-1.6277293">dismissed the offer</a>, noting that sharing printing, distribution and stories across newspapers makes it hard to remove one of them. </p>
<p>It’s worth taking Garber’s suggestion seriously, even if not in the short term. Chain ownership might lower costs. If the purpose of a newspaper is to build up local democracy, it’s important to consider what the true cost of these savings is, and whether they outweigh the tremendous shrinkage of the newsroom. I know what my answer is. </p>
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<img alt="A man speaks into a microphone while another man, who is bald, looks on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513845/original/file-20230306-18-h3ki0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513845/original/file-20230306-18-h3ki0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513845/original/file-20230306-18-h3ki0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513845/original/file-20230306-18-h3ki0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513845/original/file-20230306-18-h3ki0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513845/original/file-20230306-18-h3ki0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513845/original/file-20230306-18-h3ki0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Businessman Mitch Garber, right, speaking at a news conference in Montréal in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although Garber has invested in a range of industries, he appears to have no background in media. “Some things are more important than money,” is a promising statement, and anyone who is willing to put their own money on the line to save a community asset has my attention. </p>
<p>But individual owners can be capricious. While local ownership, no matter its structure, brings a level of accountability to the news business, it is worth taking a moment to think about how to actually build a more responsible, community-focused news source. </p>
<h2>Are non-profits the future?</h2>
<p>The <em>Gazette’s</em> local competition offers examples worth examining. <em>La Presse</em>, a French-language, online-only publication became a non-profit in 2018, meaning all profits generated are put back into the editorial process. </p>
<p><em>La Presse’s</em> owners left $50 million in its accounts before the conversion and its circulation <a href="https://nmc-mic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SNAPSHOT-2022-REPORT_Total-Industry-01.31.2023.pdf">has been rising</a>. </p>
<p><em>Le Devoir</em>, a French-language newspaper published in Montréal, <a href="https://www.lesamisdudevoir.com/fr/les-amis-du-devoir.html">has been owned by a non-profit trust for over 100 years</a>.</p>
<p>Joseph Atkinson left the <em>Toronto Star</em> to a charitable trust in 1948, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/about/history-of-the-toronto-star.html">a move that was overturned by government legislation</a>, but whose charitable spirit was preserved through the trustees <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/05/the-toronto-stars-owner-once-dreamed-that-it-would-be-a-nonprofit-now-its-being-sold-to-a-private-equity-firm/">who owned it until recently</a>. </p>
<p>And reaching further back, revenue from the operations and eventual sale of the <em>Toronto Telegram</em> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1t88wsq">helped support Sick Children’s Hospital</a>. (Today, of course, it’s newspapers that are the charity case.)</p>
<p>South of the border also has plenty of interesting examples. One of the oldest examples is the <em>Tampa Tribune</em>, <a href="https://www.poynter.org/history/">left to a trust by its owner</a>. </p>
<p>H.F. Lenfest, a prominent businessman and benefactor, <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/business/museum-of-the-american-revolution-lenfest-institute-for-journalism-philadelphia-20220419.html">created a non-profit to house <em>The Philadelphia Inquirer</em> in 2016</a> to ensure the newspaper would remain locally owned. Lenfest also created the <a href="https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/">Lenfest Institute for Journalism</a> that same year to fund local journalism.</p>
<p>This non-profit has contributed to what is one of the most vibrant news ecosystems in the United States, a goal that all newspapers should strive for. Anyone talking about bringing a chain newspaper local would do well to examine the history of <em>The Philadelphia Inquirer</em>.</p>
<h2>News media sustainability</h2>
<p>Postmedia is perhaps doing us all a service by putting the brakes on Garber’s offer. <a href="https://www.postmedia.com/2023/02/16/postmedia-announces-gazette-community-advisory-council/">The chain has put together an advisory council</a> to work on promoting the sustainability of the newspaper. </p>
<p>While a little late, this might be a move in the right direction for what should be a community-focused organization. If we’re serious about it, Montréalers would do well to put together our own process to figure out what we want and need from the <em>Gazette</em>. Perhaps this could even lead to a standing community advisory board, a check that a new owner would do well to encourage and listen to.</p>
<p>In any case, we can expect little from Postmedia, especially while Chatham Asset Management is involved. Local ownership seems worth a try. Garber seems like a good candidate, and he would do well to read up on what’s worked elsewhere so that he can ensure the <em>Gazette</em> remains an important local asset.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magda Konieczna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Local media ownership brings a level of accountability to the news business and offers benefits to communities by increasing voter turnout, reducing polarization and saving communities money.Magda Konieczna, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755012022-05-26T12:27:15Z2022-05-26T12:27:15ZHow college students can help save local news<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461639/original/file-20220505-15-f6vg7p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C1448%2C821&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Endicott College student covers Election Day in November 2020 in a Massachusetts community as part of the college's news-academic partnership with Gannett Media.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sloan Friedhaber</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Local news outlets across the U.S. are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/14/fast-facts-about-the-newspaper-industrys-financial-struggles/">struggling to bring in advertising and subscription revenue</a>, which pays for the reporting, editing and production of their articles. It’s not a new problem, but with fewer and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/13/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-fallen-26-since-2008/">fewer journalism jobs</a> as a result, a growing number of local newsrooms have found a potential solution: college journalism students.</p>
<p>The pandemic, set on a backdrop of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8590822/">political and economic tumult</a>, further injured a local news industry weakened by <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert/loss-of-local-news/bigger-and-bigger-they-grow/">decades of revenue decline, ownership consolidation and cuts to production and delivery</a>. In rural and urban communities across the country, residents have little or no access to credible or comprehensive local news and information – they live in what are called “<a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469634029/the-rise-of-a-new-media-baron-and-the-emerging-threat-of-news-deserts/">news deserts</a>.”</p>
<p>Studies show that people who live in news deserts or other locations with little local news are <a href="https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/local-journalism/knight-foundation-gallup-local-news-survey/">less likely to be actively involved in their community or participate in local elections</a>. They are also more likely to believe <a href="https://citap.unc.edu/local-news-platforms-mis-disinformation/">false information spread online through social media</a> and fake or fringe websites.</p>
<p>Through formal and informal collaborations, college journalists are helping to serve the communities where their universities are located by making sustained contributions to local media. Indeed, an <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/19/in-some-states-students-account-for-a-large-and-growing-share-of-statehouse-reporters/">estimated 10% of state capitol reporters</a> across the nation are students. In some states, such as Missouri, students make up a little more than half of their statehouse press corps, according to a 2022 <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/19/in-some-states-students-account-for-a-large-and-growing-share-of-statehouse-reporters/">report published by the Pew Research Center</a>. </p>
<p>As a researcher who studies <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-c-smith-a47540a0/">trends in rural community journalism</a> and a journalism professor who teaches in a <a href="https://www.endicott.edu/academics/schools/social-sciences-communication-humanities/faculty/l/lara-salahi">region with significant elimination of local news reporters and news coverage</a>, we decided to study these collaborations – what we call “<a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/b319e60910c6ccd576b77c808c12a246/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2026709">news-academic partnerships</a>” – often in areas that have seen local newsrooms suffer the hardest hits, as identified in the <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/">University of North Carolina’s news desert report</a>.</p>
<p>For our initial research, we sent surveys to 50 people who are involved in these collaborations, either as faculty members who manage the partnership at a college and university or as journalists at a local news outlet who oversee the partnership. We got responses from more than two dozen of them and learned these partnerships are key ways to sustain local news in places where news coverage is diminishing or critical issues are going underreported.</p>
<h2>Local connections</h2>
<p>There is not a formal comprehensive list of collaborations between local newsrooms and college journalism programs, and there are many.</p>
<p>For instance, the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism operates <a href="https://merrill.umd.edu/cns">Capital News Service</a>, which provides daily breaking and in-depth news stories by students on news stories in Maryland to partner news organizations, including television stations. </p>
<p>Some of these collaborations – such as ones between <a href="https://www.franklinpierce.edu/academics/colleges-centers/fitzwater-center/index.html">Franklin Pierce University</a> and the Keene, New Hampshire, Sentinel newspaper – have existed for more than a decade. But our survey found that they have become more common over the past five years with further media consolidation and layoffs. Newer examples include the collaboration between Connecticut College and the <a href="https://www.theday.com/">local news site The Day</a>. </p>
<h2>Student opportunities</h2>
<p>In 2019, one of us <a href="https://www.endicott.edu/news-events/news/news-articles/2020/12/communication-students-tackle-real-stories-in-remote-semester-internship">created a partnership</a> between her beat reporting class at Endicott College in Massachusetts and Gannett, the largest newspaper chain serving communities north of Boston. That year, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gatehouse-gannett-merger-is-official-creating-largest-us-newspaper-chain-2019-11-19">Gannett bought 21 publications</a> in the North Shore region of Massachusetts with 32 editorial employees serving 22 communities – and downsized them to just 10 publications with 12 editorial personnel, Gannett staff told us.</p>
<p>In a class called Beat Reporting, Endicott students receive classroom instruction on finding and pitching story ideas, conducting interviews, simplifying complex information and structuring various types of stories. Each week the students are assigned to report on stories in cities and towns surrounding the college, to be published in Gannett’s local outlets. In many ways, the class runs like a newsroom, with students involved in every stage of news reporting. In addition to the professor, a Gannett editor works with students on each story, so students get the experience of receiving professional feedback as they see their story through to publication. </p>
<p>In early 2022, there are just nine Gannett publications employing seven full-time journalists serving that same territory. During the spring 2022 semester – the partnership’s fourth year running – 10 students enrolled in the course published over <a href="https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/medford-transcript/2022/03/15/climate-change-community-resiliency-motivate-mystic-river-non-profit/9443911002/">65 news stories</a> for those <a href="https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/chronicle-transcript/2022/03/17/masco-environmental-club-ramps-up-tree-plenish-april/9366413002/">publications</a> over the course of <a href="https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/free-press-observer/2022/03/16/covid-rates-drop-malden-melrose-reading-and-wakefield/7061814001/">the spring 2022 semester</a>. They have worked on stories ranging from environmental issues to health stories to local sports and to profiling community members with interesting stories to tell. </p>
<p>While the benefit to Gannett is clear here – an increase in its capabilities for a few months – students have also benefited from the partnership. Some are publishing their stories in news sites beyond a high school or college publication for the first time. In past semesters, a few students have stayed on with Gannett beyond the course to either intern or freelance for these local publications.</p>
<p>We hypothesize some partnerships, like this one, also benefit the communities that are served by these newspapers and websites, though that has yet to be studied. In some cases, the stories written by the student journalists would likely not have been covered because of limited capacity in the newsroom. Some community members whom students have reached out to for interviews told the students they were speaking to a journalist for the first time. </p>
<p>A 2019 survey conducted by the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2019/03/26/for-local-news-americans-embrace-digital-but-still-want-strong-community-connection/">Pew Research Center</a> found that only 21% of Americans say they’ve either spoken to or been interviewed by a local journalist, which has declined from 26% in 2016. Speaking with journalists can help build an understanding of how journalism works and <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/lessons_from_journalists_on_building_trust_with_local_communities_during_crises">increase trust in news</a>.</p>
<h2>Universities as partners</h2>
<p>News-academic partnerships allow students to put the principles and techniques taught within classrooms into practice. We hypothesize that well-executed collaborations could arguably be seen as competitors to time- and resource-strapped newsrooms in the same coverage area. For now, though, it seems news-academic partnerships are just that: partnerships, and more collaborative than competitive. </p>
<p>We hope they might also lead to new journalistic endeavors, like the start of a new news outlet, or revival of an dying one. For example, in October 2021, the University of Georgia’s Grady College announced it would <a href="https://grady.uga.edu/journalism-students-to-play-integral-role-in-saving-community-newspaper/">revive a nearby community newspaper</a> that was slated to close. </p>
<p>However, it’s not an easy task. We have found that faculty members who seek to create or manage sustainable news-academic partnerships often find they face some of the same problems that editors at local news outlets report, such as burnout, high workloads and low pay. For instance, in a follow-up to our initial study, faculty members who oversaw a variety of news-academic partnerships reported receiving little or no additional compensation, nor a decrease in other responsibilities, such as teaching, to balance the workload.</p>
<p>The faculty members we spoke with also felt pressure to deliver professional-level multimedia journalism out of classrooms where students are still learning the craft, as well as the required technologies.</p>
<p>However, academic institutions are theoretically well positioned to sustain meaningful journalism that serves their communities, which are often outside of elite news coverage areas. Many are well funded and provide the physical and mental space for minds to build healthy skepticism and investigate complex issues in society. And many have <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178640915/npr-stations-and-public-media">housed public radio stations for decades</a>, without imposing limits on editorial or financial independence. Even today, recognizing the <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/10/higher-ed-and-public-radio-are-enmeshed-so-what-happens-when-the-culture-wars-come/">possibility of political interference</a> from university administrators, some stations have deliberately created policies to maintain their independence. </p>
<p>We think even more universities could be a source for reducing the number and size of news deserts in the U.S., and ensuring communities across the country retain a reliable source of news and information.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Partnerships between universities and local media outlets are key ways to sustain local news where coverage is diminishing.Lara Salahi, Assistant Professor of Broadcast and Digital Journalism, Endicott CollegeChristina Smith, Associate Professor of Mass Communication, Georgia College and State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603532021-05-06T20:07:59Z2021-05-06T20:07:59ZPrint isn’t dead: major survey reveals local newspapers vastly preferred over Google among country news consumers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399132/original/file-20210506-23-1nottkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Newspaper readers in rural and regional Australia are five times more likely to go directly to their local newspaper website than Google or Facebook for local information, and almost 10 times as likely to go to their local news website over a council website for news and information. </p>
<p>Nearly two-thirds of local newspaper readers also indicate policies affecting the future of rural and regional media would influence the way they vote at the next federal election. </p>
<p>These are some of the key findings of a national survey of almost 4,200 Australian country newspaper readers we recently conducted as part of a <a href="https://www.localnewsinnovation.org">project to drive greater innovation</a> in the rural and regional media landscape.</p>
<p>Many small newspapers in Australia faced closure after their advertising budgets shrunk during the global pandemic, while others moved to digital-only editions to cut costs. </p>
<p>In our survey — the largest conducted of country press audiences in Australia — we found local newspapers still play a vital role in providing information to residents in these communities, even with the proliferation of news available on Facebook and Google. </p>
<p>This is a significant finding, given how much focus has been placed on the role of the tech giants as a central point for digital news and information. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Australia is targeting Google and Facebook with new law." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399134/original/file-20210506-15-1342t30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399134/original/file-20210506-15-1342t30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399134/original/file-20210506-15-1342t30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399134/original/file-20210506-15-1342t30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399134/original/file-20210506-15-1342t30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399134/original/file-20210506-15-1342t30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399134/original/file-20210506-15-1342t30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia’s new law aimed at forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news content has been fiercely opposed by the tech companies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Lennihan/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The federal government recently implemented a <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/news-media-bargaining-code">mandatory news media bargaining code</a> that forces tech companies like Facebook and Google to pay news producers for content that appears on their platforms. </p>
<p>Last week, the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/country-press-australia-members-can-collectively-bargain-with-google-and-facebook">ACCC</a> granted interim approval for Country Press Australia to negotiate with the tech giants on behalf of its 160 newspapers. </p>
<p>This funding is desperately needed to help support publishers of credible, reliable local news who are losing the <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b0fd5e6710699c630b269b1/t/5f72ab571a997804d003891e/1601350523294/ADI+Policy+Briefing+Paper+-+New+approach+needed+to+save+rural+and+regional+news+providers+in+Australia.pdf">advertising dollar</a> to social media platforms — but for some, it still may not be enough. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-facebook-ups-the-ante-on-news-regional-and-elderly-australians-will-be-hardest-hit-155557">As Facebook ups the ante on news, regional and elderly Australians will be hardest hit</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Resistance to local papers going online only</h2>
<p>Our survey also reveals just how passionate people are about local newspapers in rural and regional Australia — that is, the print version. In fact, the majority of <a href="https://countrypressaustralia.com.au">country press audiences</a> (71%) prefer to read their local paper in print than online.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399125/original/file-20210506-17-1bsvqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399125/original/file-20210506-17-1bsvqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399125/original/file-20210506-17-1bsvqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399125/original/file-20210506-17-1bsvqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399125/original/file-20210506-17-1bsvqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399125/original/file-20210506-17-1bsvqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399125/original/file-20210506-17-1bsvqsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
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<hr>
<p>Many respondents expressed resistance to their newspaper being made available in digital format only. They offered comments such as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is always room for improvement, but if this newspaper went digital, I would not be interested. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And this from another:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The day it goes digital only will be the day I stop reading it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our survey also found that respondents overwhelmingly (86%) view a printed copy of their newspaper as an essential service for their community. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399126/original/file-20210506-16-f9zb9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399126/original/file-20210506-16-f9zb9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399126/original/file-20210506-16-f9zb9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399126/original/file-20210506-16-f9zb9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399126/original/file-20210506-16-f9zb9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399126/original/file-20210506-16-f9zb9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399126/original/file-20210506-16-f9zb9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<hr>
<p>This accords with our <a href="https://theconversation.com/local-newspapers-are-an-essential-service-they-deserve-a-government-rescue-package-too-135323">previous research</a> that has advocated for the federal government to recognise the vital importance of the printed paper to regional communities.</p>
<p>While the average age of our survey respondents was 60-61, this demographic will continue to represent a large portion of local news readership for many years. </p>
<p>This means local news organisations need strategies to aid the transition for all audiences into digital formats and/or advocate for the survival of the printed product in the interests of social connection and democracy.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399127/original/file-20210506-14-1d93m52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399127/original/file-20210506-14-1d93m52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399127/original/file-20210506-14-1d93m52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399127/original/file-20210506-14-1d93m52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399127/original/file-20210506-14-1d93m52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399127/original/file-20210506-14-1d93m52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399127/original/file-20210506-14-1d93m52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Age NewsSource graph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<h2>Locals want a say in the future of their papers</h2>
<p>Our survey also found 94% of respondents want a much bigger say about government policies and decisions affecting the future of local newspapers. This finding sends a message to policymakers to rethink their strategies for engaging the public in ideas to support the future of local media.</p>
<p>When it comes to solutions for struggling rural and regional media outlets, our survey found:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>audiences believe local newspapers should be collaboratively funded by a range of relevant stakeholders (media companies, advertisers, subscribers, social media, government and philanthropic organisations) to ensure their future</p></li>
<li><p>while some media lobbyists and academics — both in Australia and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/deductions-credits-expenses/digital-news-subscription/list-qualifying-digital-news-subscriptions.html">overseas</a> — have called for newspaper subscriptions to be made tax deductible, 71% of respondents are not in favour of such initiatives </p></li>
<li><p>respondents also overwhelmingly said any additional government funding for local news should be used to employ more local journalists (71%) over increasing digital connectivity (13%) and digital innovation products (17%).</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/local-news-sources-are-closing-across-australia-we-are-tracking-the-devastation-and-some-reasons-for-hope-139756">Local news sources are closing across Australia. We are tracking the devastation (and some reasons for hope)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The voices of loyal readers must be heard</h2>
<p>Our findings also reaffirm that local newspaper audiences are loyal and develop life-long connections with newspapers wherever they live and work. As an 88-year-old man from Victoria said, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have always looked forward to the local paper, and whilst the format is now different, it is still a ‘must’ to catch up on whatever is happening in my town.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While there have been Senate inquiries into the future of <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/future_of_public_interest_journalism/publicinterestjournalism">public interest journalism</a>, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Mediadiversity/Submissions">media diversity</a> and the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/ABC_Amendment_Bill/Interim_Report">role of the ABC in regional and rural areas</a>, the public submissions to these important policy discussions are lacking the voices of local newspaper readers like our respondents.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/local-newspapers-are-an-essential-service-they-deserve-a-government-rescue-package-too-135323">Local newspapers are an 'essential service'. They deserve a government rescue package, too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is not because people in the bush don’t care, but because such formal mechanisms are arguably not the best way to engage with and listen to media audiences beyond the major cities. </p>
<p>What is clear from our research is local independent newspapers really matter to their audiences, and many loyal readers are ready to defend them at the ballot box.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Hess is a chief investigator on projects funded by The Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Waller receives funding from The Australian Research Council</span></em></p>The majority of country press audiences prefer to read their local paper in print than online. In fact, many said they would stop reading their papers if they went digital only.Kristy Hess, Associate Professor (Communication), Deakin UniversityLisa Waller, Professor of Digital Communication, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1560742021-03-01T11:42:10Z2021-03-01T11:42:10ZJournalism: digital giants paying for content is good news, but will it support local press?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386548/original/file-20210225-13-1ncaiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4752%2C3158&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Local stories often find their way into national papers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew J Shearer via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>That the internet has all but destroyed the business model that has always supported journalism is not news. But what has made the news around the world recently is that the Australian government has attempted to do something about it.</p>
<p>It has <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/australia-passes-law-forcing-google-and-facebook-to-pay-news-publications/">passed a new law</a> forcing organisations such as Facebook and Google, which make a great deal of money out of carrying news material on their platforms, to share their advertising revenue with media organisations. </p>
<p>Facebook incurred a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56168843">worldwide backlash</a> by temporarily blocking all news sites for users in Australia. Google, meanwhile, took the opposite tack by signing early agreements with the country’s key media players. Facebook has now also pledged to strike deals with Australia’s leading news companies in return for allowing its users to post their content on its pages.</p>
<p>But if the purpose of the new law is to serve democracy by supporting public interest journalism, how well will it work?</p>
<p>The wholesale movement of revenue from media outlets employing professional journalists to content platforms which produce no original stories is a <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/report-predicts-five-years-of-steep-global-decline-for-newspaper-industry-revenu-print-and-online/">major international problem</a>. Social media doesn’t just reduce funding for professional journalism, it also enables the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/fake-news-33438">spread of fake news</a> that rapidly fills the gap left behind. It’s a problem that has been obscured by social media’s many other issues: bullying, use by criminal groups, and disturbing, exploitative, violent and pornographic content. But in fact, how advertising income breaks down has much deeper implications.</p>
<p>Digital advertising spend is <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/283009/digital-advertising-spending-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/">continuously increasing</a>, but about 40% goes to Google, with Facebook in second place at about 22% and closing the gap. Meanwhile, local newspapers have watched as their property advertising has disappeared to Rightmove and their classified ads to Ebay and Facebook. As for job ads, which were such good moneyspinners for local and national newspapers, they have migrated mainly to CV upload sites, such as LinkedIn. </p>
<p>To maintain visibility in the new digital world, news organisations have to be present on social media platforms – which simply means more eyeballs for the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Deprived of advertising revenue, traditional news organisations are in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/07/read-all-about-it-how-local-papers-decline-is-starving-communities-of-news">seemingly unstoppable decline</a> – not just in the UK, but <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2017-12/Local%20Journalism%20-%20the%20decline%20of%20newspapers%20and%20the%20rise%20of%20digital%20media.pdf">around the world</a>. In the UK, <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uk-local-newspaper-closures-at-least-265-local-newspaper-titles-gone-since-2005-but-pace-of-decline-has-slowed/">265 titles have closed since 2005</a> – with COVID-19 proving the final nail in the coffin for some.</p>
<p>The Australian initiative attempts to mitigate against tech giants siphoning off all digital revenue – but a major and valid criticism is that the deal appears to be skewed in favour of large media organisations. Funds also need to be made available to support independent local news organisations. The imbalance is already visible.</p>
<p>Google preempted the new law by reaching agreements <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-56163550">to pay seven</a> Australian media organisations, including Rupert Murdoch’s considerable newspaper and TV empire. But there’s concern that the grassroots organisations that provide most public service news are <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-google-is-now-funnelling-millions-into-media-outlets-as-facebook-pulls-news-for-australia-155468">unlikely to benefit</a> without the massive influence of the nationals.</p>
<p>Google has also agreed to pay for use of news snippets in Google News search results from <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-google-publishers/google-and-french-publishers-sign-agreement-over-copyright-idUSKBN29Q0SC">some publishers in France</a> – but so far only to a handful of major national organisations as well as the international news agency Reuters. Again, the agreement looks set to benefit the biggest players the most, since one of the criteria is monthly traffic. Reuters’ French rival AFP has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-france-copyright-exclusive-idUSKBN2AC27N">already complained</a>.</p>
<h2>Blackout on local news</h2>
<p>Why does this matter? <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44688274">Research has shown</a> clear links between a loss of journalism – particularly at local level – and a loss of public participation and trust in democracy. The watchdog role of the local press drives up standards in many other unexpected ways.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/652903">the US</a>, congressmen in areas not covered by a local newspaper do less to represent their communities in the absence of local watchdogs – they are more likely to toe the party to line than rebel, and do less constituency work, while their areas get less federal funding. Where local newsrooms have had severe staff cuts, there’s also <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1078087419838058?journalCode=uarb">less competition</a> in mayoral elections.</p>
<p>There’s evidence from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2010.01633.x">Norway</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-017-0444-x">Japan</a> that councils in areas with high local paper circulations are more efficient. The decline of local newspapers and reduced coverage of local politics has even been blamed for <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-the-decline-of-local-newspapers-exacerbates-polarization">political polarisation</a>, particularly in poorer areas. </p>
<p>And it’s not just about politics. The <a href="https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2019/03/is-this-all-the-local-news/">Index on Censorship</a> has reported on the problems of reduced local newsrooms trying to report accurately while public bodies, including health and education trusts, employ highly paid marketing teams to protect their image; and local social media groups share information that often turns out to be false.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A newsagent surrounded by magazines and local papers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386716/original/file-20210226-19-1i8rn9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386716/original/file-20210226-19-1i8rn9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386716/original/file-20210226-19-1i8rn9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386716/original/file-20210226-19-1i8rn9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386716/original/file-20210226-19-1i8rn9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386716/original/file-20210226-19-1i8rn9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386716/original/file-20210226-19-1i8rn9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Local news is the lifeblood of its community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anton Havelaar via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fewer local journalists means less coverage of court cases and inquests. In my own research into coverage of coroners’ courts, we found evidence of “news deserts”: areas where <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2020.1776143?scroll=top&needAccess=true">inquests were never reported</a> due to staff cuts and patchy information from courts. Editors told me it was increasingly difficult to contact the police directly, as contacts were funnelled through police “newsrooms” – previously press offices – which now aim to prioritise good news stories about police successes.</p>
<p>This has serious consequences. The importance of the reporting of public inquests has been highlighted by the work of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-55986827">George Julian</a>, who live-tweets inquests of people with learning difficulties and autism. They typically die two decades earlier than people without these special needs, often because of poorly managed care which is only highlighted during the inquest process. But if there is no-one there to cover the inquest, there is little public pressure for change.</p>
<h2>Local journalism costs money too</h2>
<p>The moves by the Australian government are a step in the right direction but there is a risk that the negotiating system will let the big players grab the newly released revenue, leaving high-quality, professional local journalism high and dry again.</p>
<p>This is actually in nobody’s interests. National news organisations have long relied on the local press to act as a grassroots army of reporters. Many national stories began as a local paper’s front page, and many great reporters started out on the local press. Self-interest actually should dictate that they use their power to help their smaller colleagues, but it seems likely that, without a keen oversight by the reviewing body a year from now, short-termism will ensure they continue to carve out the biggest slice of the pie.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Binns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Local newspapers are a key part of the ecology of journalism.Amy Binns, Senior Lecturer, Journalism and Digital Communication, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1514482020-12-08T15:12:06Z2020-12-08T15:12:06ZCoronavirus: people turn to their local news sites in record numbers during pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373594/original/file-20201208-13-h0hsq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=164%2C272%2C4240%2C2893&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wozzie via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Local newspapers have seen sales of their print copies <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/dizzying-decline-britain-s-local-newspapers-do-you-want-bad-news-or-good-news-9702684.html">in decline for decades</a> and, with regional newspaper groups regularly <a href="https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2020/news/redundancies-in-store-at-newsquest-as-ceo-admits-staffing-cannot-return-to-pre-covid-levels/">cutting staff</a>, it has felt like UK local news journalism might be on the way out – to be replaced by WhatsApp groups or Facebook chat.</p>
<p>But interest in news from people’s own neighbourhoods has prompted a significant digital spike this year. Hundreds of thousands of people have turned to their local newspaper websites during the pandemic for a clearer understanding of the local implications of this national crisis.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nottinghampost.com/">Nottinghamshire Live</a> site, run by Reach Plc, has just seen its highest numbers ever in a single month, 25 million page views, in October this year. The second-highest month ever was in April 2020.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1336261946350428165"}"></div></p>
<p>At the <a href="https://www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk/">Bishop’s Stortford Independent</a>, a weekly paper in Hertfordshire, the monthly web audience increased from 260,000 in January to 360,000 in October. The newspaper team was adding more stories to the website than previously, and also launched an app as a reaction to the demand for stories.</p>
<p>Newsquest, one of the biggest owners of regional UK media, announced in early December it is to turn its <a href="https://www.newsquest.co.uk/news/oldham-times">weekly paper in Oldham into a daily</a>, the company said one of the reasons was that “the title has seen record audience numbers online over the last six months”.</p>
<h2>Local voices</h2>
<p>With millions confined to their homes during lockdowns, where do you turn to during the pandemic if you want to find out whether the local surgeries are open or where you can buy a toilet roll? Day-to-day details about where to find a COVID testing centre or council grants were at the heart of local news over the past nine months.</p>
<p>“The restrictions are so local that the only place you can find out the information you need for where you live is from your local publisher. It is affecting peoples’ lives in an extreme way,” said Natalie Fahy, editor of Nottinghamshire Live and the Nottingham Post newspaper.</p>
<p>Alastair Machray, editor-in-chief of the <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/">Liverpool Echo</a>, told me: “We saw it very much as our responsibility to lift the clouds of confusion by writing explanatory content.”</p>
<p>Tracey Bagshaw, group editor of the <a href="http://www.justregional.co.uk/">Just Regional group</a>, which includes local news magazines in north Norfolk, said that a lot of what was published at the beginning of the pandemic was “very much in the information mode.</p>
<p>"And it just seemed important, because a lot of people were saying we don’t know, and it was an uncertain time”, she said, adding that: “people wanted news immediately. They don’t want to wait until Friday, to find out what was happening. They wanted to know, on Tuesday morning.”</p>
<p>An upside from the past few months has been more interaction with readers – which has allowed news sites to learn more about their readers wanted, who they were, and what sort of stories they were searching for. “So you’d know exactly sort of how a post was doing, what stories were – and we’re actually picking up comments from readers,” said Bagshaw.</p>
<h2>A matter of trust</h2>
<p>When it comes to the vital issue of trusting information, there is still an important point of difference between local papers and WhatsApp groups. Newspapers and sites run by trained journalists have a commitment to fact-checking, asking challenging questions of local authorities and digging into a local issue. </p>
<p>During the pandemic, most local news sites published a mix of detail about how hospitals were coping and case numbers, but also focused on how people were helping each other. The positive stories about communities started to attract significant numbers of readers, too. Said Bagshaw: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were lots of pictures of people painting rainbows and delivering food and, you know, just helping others. Alongside the stories about how local buildings are being turned into temporary mortuaries or being turned into temporary accommodation for the homeless.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Local news companies also <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/innovation-and-sharper-focus-how-local-news-weathering-coronavirus-storm">tried out new ideas during the pandemic</a>, some offering print subscriptions as gifts, others trying out technology to record interviews without leaving home or new software to keep reporters in touch with each other.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shetland Times newspaper sits on a pile of UK national papers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373597/original/file-20201208-15-111e4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373597/original/file-20201208-15-111e4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373597/original/file-20201208-15-111e4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373597/original/file-20201208-15-111e4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373597/original/file-20201208-15-111e4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373597/original/file-20201208-15-111e4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373597/original/file-20201208-15-111e4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Local papers: sometimes they provide all the news you need to know.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew J Shearer via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether this rise in digital traffic signals a new era for UK local news is unclear. Certainly, it could just be a reaction to the crisis, and reader numbers could slip back to previous levels. But with more of the population likely to work <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a2fd84a8-172e-4c9d-9824-0504e86f2da1">from home in years to come</a>, interest in the local community may become increasingly important to people who no longer spend significant parts of their week on long commutes.</p>
<p>Machray believes that the audience will continue to grow. “My sense is that the reputation of the regional media has been enhanced massively through COVID due to the <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/calendar/future-local-and-regional-news">efforts and expertise</a>, they’ve expended on behalf of their readership.”</p>
<h2>Generating revenue</h2>
<p>But as well as holding on to their bigger online audiences, companies still need <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/innovation-and-sharper-focus-how-local-news-weathering-coronavirus-storm">to find new revenue streams</a> to replace levels of advertising in their print copies. For most digital advertising has not delivered this, and print sales continue to fall.</p>
<p>One inspiration is Mark Thompson, who stepped down as chief executive of the New York Times this summer after turning around the newspaper’s finances. During his time there, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/22/mark-thompson-steps-down-as-chief-executive-of-new-york-times">paying subscribers rose to five million</a> and it added more journalists, going against the industry trend.</p>
<p>Closer to home is another model, the family-owned news business <a href="https://www.iliffemedia.co.uk">Iliffe</a>, which added four new local papers to its portfolio in the last 18 months. The company’s chief executive, Edward Iliffe, said the key to their success is a focus on the <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/iliffe-media-done-expanding-focus-on-local/">“parochial”</a>.</p>
<p>His newspapers have drawn on old-style journalism with council reports, local football results – and, before the pandemic struck, were even providing a slice of cake for readers who popped into their town centre offices.</p>
<p>Finding the right balance of news may help local news teams work out what their future needs to look like.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Jolley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Local news websites have offered essential details on how to understand COVID rules and where to buy toilet rolls.Rachael Jolley, Research Fellow at the Centre for Freedom of the Media and Visiting Fellow in Journalism, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1419552020-07-20T11:09:19Z2020-07-20T11:09:19ZCOVID-19 has ravaged American newsrooms – here’s why that matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348181/original/file-20200717-35-1qq6254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C2420%2C1604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Read all about it: Virus kills off dying industry</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/newspaper-dispensing-machines-palofox-street-royalty-free-image/1008532788?adppopup=true">Brian Mitchell/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many newsrooms across the U.S. will be quieter places when journalists return to their workplace after the coronavirus lockdowns end.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has ripped through the industry. In the United States alone, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/business/media/news-media-coronavirus-jobs.html">over 36,000 journalists</a> have lost their jobs, been furloughed or had their pay cut.</p>
<p>Analysis by Kristen Hare, a reporter at the journalism institute Poynter, shows that more than 200 newsrooms and media groups have been affected by lay-offs and other cost-saving measures, including mergers and reduced print runs. Local journalism has been <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffs-furloughs-and-closures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/">hit particularly hard</a>.</p>
<p>Even outlets seen as having a “good pandemic” have been adversely affected. Atlantic Media, for example, <a href="https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/atlantic-magazine-layoff-68-employees-pay-cuts-1234613048/">laid off 68 employees</a> in May, equivalent to 17% of its staff, despite the publication adding 90,000 subscribers since March.</p>
<p>If the pandemic is, as some experts fear, an “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/apr/09/coronavirus-us-newspapers-impact">extinction-level event</a>,” and the mainstream media goes the way of the dinosaur, the consequences for democracy could be dire. It would dramatically reduce journalism’s ability to deliver on its <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/purpose-journalism/">core purposes</a>: holding authority to account, informing and empowering audiences, and reflecting a community back to itself.</p>
<h2>Declining fortunes</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has accelerated long-term financial trends that have beset journalism, and in particular newspapers, for some time. Between 2008 and 2018, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/14/fast-facts-about-the-newspaper-industrys-financial-struggles/">print revenues at U.S. papers plummeted</a> by 62%, as US$23.5 billion of advertising revenue migrated to digital platforms, with Google, Facebook and Craigslist the <a href="https://www.baekdal.com/thoughts/what-killed-the-newspapers-google-or-facebook-or/">main beneficiaries</a>.</p>
<p>Reduced revenues, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2018/11/30/how-social-media-has-changed-how-we-consume-news/#1555896b3c3c">coupled</a> with changing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/01/global-newspaper-readership-zenithoptimedia-media-consumption">media habits</a>, meant that even prior to the pandemic, newspaper employment in the U.S. had already dropped by 51% between 2008 and 2019.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<p>The U.S. news industry employed 27,000 fewer reporters, editors, photographers and videographers in 2019 than a decade earlier. Recent layoffs at <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cbs-news-hit-hard-by-layoffs-is-shocked-1296157">CBS News</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2019-media-layoffs-job-cuts-at-buzzfeed-huffpost-vice-details-2019-2">CNN</a>, as well as Vice, BuzzFeed and other online outlets, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/with-cuts-at-vice-quartz-buzzfeed-even-medias-savviest-digital-players-are-hurting/2020/05/19/f15d3dde-96e9-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html">demonstrate</a> that few newsrooms have escaped unscathed.</p>
<p>As a media scholar, I’ve <a href="https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/50-ways-to-make-media-pay-report-download/">charted</a> how publishers have tried to stem the tide, diversifying their revenue streams and reducing reliance on advertising. These efforts haven’t moved fast enough. Advertising dollars were already ebbing away quicker than they can be replaced. Now, previously promising income sources, such as <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/01/tribune-festival-tickets/">live events</a>, have been decimated by COVID-19, too. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/publishers-focus-on-subscriptions-as-they-diversify-revenue/">focus</a> on growing subscriptions also faces an <a href="http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2019/paying-for-news-and-the-limits-of-subscription/">uphill struggle</a>. Many consumers are used to getting their news for free, and efforts to change behaviors come at a time when millions of Americans have less money in their pockets.</p>
<h2>News deserts</h2>
<p>Having fewer journalists <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/">involved</a> in the process of gathering, assessing, creating and presenting the news has been the reality at a local level for some time.</p>
<p>In the past two years, 300 newspapers across the U.S. have closed, a <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/news-deserts-and-ghost-newspapers-will-local-news-survive/">new report</a> from the University of North Carolina shows. Over the previous 15 years, more than one-fourth of the country’s newspapers have disappeared.</p>
<p>Local newspapers play a <a href="https://dewitt.sanford.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Assessing-Local-Journalism_100-Communities.pdf">critical role in meeting community information needs</a>.</p>
<p>Across the United States, 200 counties do not have a local newspaper, leading to the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/local_news/american-news-deserts-donuts-local.php">emergence of news deserts</a>. Close to half of all counties – 1,540 – only have one newspaper, usually a weekly. Where local titles remain, many are “ghost newspapers” operating with minimal staff, often a shadow of their former selves.</p>
<p>The irony is that while battering journalism, the pandemic has also underlined the need for reliable local news – access to accurate information tailored and relevant to your community <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-revealing-why-local-news-so-important-it-s-also-ncna1186261">can be crucial</a> during a public health crisis. </p>
<p>As Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for The Washington Post, <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2020/07/14/sullivan-book/index.html">explains</a>: “There’s a difference between your neighbors’ rumors and an actual reported piece that is subject to verification and to correction if it’s wrong.”</p>
<h2>Dimming the spotlight</h2>
<p>Journalism’s reduced capacity may have other detrimental effects.</p>
<p>Data suggests a correlation between <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/11/03/civic-engagement-strongly-tied-to-local-news-habits/">consumption of local news and civic engagement</a>. The absence of local journalism can mean <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/1078087419838058">fewer people run for office</a>, the <a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/finance/gov-newspapers-closure-costs-government.html">cost of government goes up</a> and citizens become <a href="https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/local-newspapers-civic-engagement/">less engaged</a> with elections.</p>
<p>Alongside this, as <a href="https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/01/the-best-journalism-movies">fans of movies</a> like “All The President’s Men” and “Spotlight” know, there is also journalism’s vital watchdog role.</p>
<p>In Bell, California, a Pulitzer Prize-winning <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/bell/la-me-bell-scandal-a-times-investigation-20160211-storygallery.html">investigation</a> by the Los Angeles Times revealed members of the town’s leadership earned salaries two to three times their counterparts in similar towns. The story triggered a criminal case and led to jail time for several public officials.</p>
<p>Described by then-Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley as “corruption on steroids,” Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-california-corruption/five-ex-officials-from-bell-california-convicted-in-corruption-trial-idUSBRE92J17M20130320">recounts</a> how “eight former city officials were collectively accused of bilking taxpayers out of roughly $5.5 million through excessive salaries, benefits and illicit loans of public money.”</p>
<p>“The problems in Bell dated back years and permeated city government,” the Los Angeles Times <a href="https://timelines.latimes.com/bell/">said</a>. But because the city’s paper had closed, “no one was actively looking for corruption or fraud there,” the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School <a href="https://web.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/public-integrity/files/bell_report_final_pdf_2.13.15.pdf">concluded</a>. “It took a [wider] newspaper investigation to draw law enforcement scrutiny.”</p>
<p>As local newspapers continue to shutter, and jobs are shed across the news industry, then the risk of undiscovered scandals at a local, state and national level, grows.</p>
<h2>Time to intervene?</h2>
<p>Against the backdrop of a presidential election, a public health crisis and a tsunami of online misinformation, good journalism is needed to report on – and make sense of – these issues.</p>
<p>Recognizing the financial peril faced by the sector, politicians and industry experts are exploring a number of potential remedies. </p>
<p>Ideas like a “<a href="https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/blog/detail/article/covid-19-we-dont-want-the-crumbs-from-the-google-and-facebook-table-we-want-them-to-pay-their-fa.html">Google Tax</a>,” which will take profits from big tech companies to pay for journalism, <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2020/many-news-organizations-will-apply-for-federal-money-is-this-the-first-step-to-government-support-for-local-news/">public funding</a> and enabling commercial companies to become <a href="https://www.rcfp.org/resources/introduction/">tax-exempt</a> <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/11/04/historic-shift-salt-lake/">nonprofits</a>, are all being discussed.</p>
<p>“The business model itself was critically wounded by the internet and then social media even before news outlets were affected by the coronavirus,” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-revealing-why-local-news-so-important-it-s-also-ncna1186261">notes</a> the journalist Matt Laslo. “The truth is that now, journalism is beyond saving by capitalism alone.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/20/dont-waste-stimulus-money-on-newspapers-197015">Not everyone agrees</a>. But to ensure a free and flourishing press, new ways to support it may need to be found. </p>
<p>That means making a better case for the role that journalism performs, as well as <a href="https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/government-funding-journalism.php">exploring different funding models</a>. </p>
<p>Without this, as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/washington/01ivins.html">late</a> newspaper columnist <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/15/760632698/a-portrait-of-molly-ivins-maverick-texas-journalist-in-raise-hell">Molly Ivins</a>, a three-time Pulitzer finalist <a href="http://archive.news.ku.edu/2001/01N/JanNews/Jan18/ivins.html">cautioned</a>, “It is the stories we don’t get, the ones we miss, pass over, fail to recognize, don’t pick up on, that will send us to hell.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damian Radcliffe is a member of the Online News Association and has received funding from the Agora Journalism Center and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism to research developments into business models, innovation and civic engagement in local media.</span></em></p>COVID-19 has accelerated the decline in local and national journalism. Is it time to find a new funding model, or for the government to intervene?Damian Radcliffe, Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1396492020-05-29T11:47:04Z2020-05-29T11:47:04ZDigital-only local newspapers will struggle to serve the communities that need them most<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338461/original/file-20200529-51509-xgwve9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C102%2C2450%2C1529&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week News Corp Australia announced the end of the print editions of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/28/news-corp-announces-end-of-nearly-100-australian-print-newspapers-in-huge-shift-to-digital">112 suburban and regional mastheads</a> – about one-fifth of all of Australia’s local newspapers. Of those, 36 will close and 76 become purely online publications. </p>
<p>Getting <a href="https://piji.com.au/research/the-australian-newsroom-mapping-project/">the chop entirely</a> are small regional newspapers such as the Herbert River Express in far north Queensland. Its circulation at last boast was “more than 2,700”. Those going digital include free suburban papers such as Sydney’s Manly Daily, established in 1906. As recently as 2017 it came out five times a week. Since 2018 is has been published <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/news-corp-scales-manly-daily-back-two-editions-per-week-487802">twice a week</a>. </p>
<p>Whether the online-only papers can survive remains to be seen. But our research at the <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/centre-media-transition">Centre for Media Transition</a> suggests it will be hard for them to match what local print editions offered communities. </p>
<h2>Losing readers and advertisers</h2>
<p>Like print media in general, local newspapers have been squeezed by readers and advertisers moving online. Most of the revenue, even for those with a cover price, has come from advertising. This has been eroded by the likes of Google and Facebook as well as localised classified sites such as Gumtree.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-platforms-why-the-acccs-proposals-for-google-and-facebook-matter-big-time-108501">Digital platforms. Why the ACCC's proposals for Google and Facebook matter big time</a>
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<p>While this has happened at slower pace than the loss of the “rivers of gold” for metropolitan newspapers, the “desertification” of local news has progressed steadily. In the decade to 2018, <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Digital%20platforms%20inquiry%20-%20final%20report.pdf">106 local and regional newspapers closed</a> in Australia, leaving 21 local government areas – 16 in regional areas – without a local newspaper. </p>
<p>Those that have survived have seen their staff slashed, with reporters expected to produce more “content” at the cost of doing the serious reporting that made local newspapers so valuable to their communities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-a-dark-decade-for-australias-regional-newspapers-a-hopeful-light-flickers-116359">After a dark decade for Australia's regional newspapers, a hopeful light flickers</a>
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<h2>Local media ‘keystones’</h2>
<p>As Danish researcher Rasmus Kleis Nielsen notes in <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2017-12/Local%20Journalism%20-%20the%20decline%20of%20newspapers%20and%20the%20rise%20of%20digital%20media.pdf">Local Journalism: The decline of newspapers and the rise of digital media</a> (IB Taurus, 2016), local newspapers have been the “keystone” of “local news ecosystems”. </p>
<p>No other local media comes close to the local coverage they provide. “Most of the many stories about local politics produced by the local paper never appear anywhere else,” says Nielsen. Local radio and television have tended to piggyback on their work. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-local-newspaper-means-to-a-regional-city-like-newcastle-116276">What a local newspaper means to a regional city like Newcastle</a>
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<p>Without this reporting, local democracy suffers. Research <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/07/16/how-closures-of-local-newspaper-increase-local-government-borrowing-costs/">in the United States</a> shows local papers are essential to keep local government accountable. </p>
<h2>Local news doesn’t scale</h2>
<p>Given declining revenue for traditional print, and the cost of printing, moving to digital-only platforms was perhaps inevitable. </p>
<p>But the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the move by killing off advertising from local businesses such as restaurants and pubs. In April News Corp <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/apr/01/news-corp-to-suspend-print-editions-of-60-local-newspapers-as-advertising-revenue-slumps">suspended the print runs of 60</a> local papers. Just three – the Wentworth Courier, Mosman Daily and North Shore Times, serving Sydney’s most affluent suburbs – will resume, thanks to their lucrative property advertising.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-killing-quality-journalism-heres-one-possible-lifeline-138627">Coronavirus is killing quality journalism – here's one possible lifeline</a>
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<p>Making the rest viable as digital-only local news services is going to be tricky for two reasons.</p>
<p>The first is to do with how online advertising works. The second is how readers in these areas relate to the news, and their willingness to pay for online news.</p>
<p>A key characteristic of the historical readership and advertising markets for local newspaper is their “bounded” nature. But the defining characteristics of online news and advertising is “scaleability”. </p>
<p>Once all newspapers could largely dictate prices to advertisers. This was particularly the case with local papers, often the only game in town. But the game has changed. What they can charge for online advertising is a fraction of what they once could for print. </p>
<p>Most metro newspapers responded with plans to grow their readership by providing their content free online. The idea was that more readers would help maintain them as an attractive advertising platform.</p>
<p>This has generally not proved the winning strategy they had hoped. So papers from <em>The Age</em> to <em>The Daily Telegraph</em> have been moving to paywalls, enticing their print buyers to online subscriptions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cash-for-clicks-the-herald-sun-model-cant-be-the-future-of-journalism-119638">Cash for clicks: the Herald Sun model can't be the future of journalism</a>
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<h2>Unwillingness to pay</h2>
<p>Our research suggests doing the same with non-metropolitan newspapers is likely to be harder. Readers in rural and regional areas are less willing than those in cities to pay for online news services.</p>
<p>As part of our report <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/2019-09/Regional%20News%20Media%20-%20State%20of%20play_0.pdf">Regional News Media: State of Play</a> published in 2019, we surveyed 266 people living in regional and rural areas, demographically representative of the population of country Australia.</p>
<p>Just 14% indicated willingness to pay for news online, with 49% saying they would not (and 37% unsure). </p>
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<p>The News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra has found similar reluctance to pay. The results of its <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019-06/apo-nid240786.pdf">Digital News Report Australia 2019</a> show just 12% of regional news consumers had paid for online news, compared with 16% of urban news consumers. More detailed research produced for our <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/2019-09/Regional%20News%20Media%20-%20State%20of%20play_0.pdf">report</a> shows the difference is starkest for subscriptions. </p>
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<h2>Poorest communities hurt the most</h2>
<p>That unwillingness to pay for online content may change if it’s the only way to get local news. Attitudes to online subscriptions are shifting, and people do value local news. Research commissioned for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platforms Inquiry found <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ACCC%20consumer%20survey%20-%20Consumer%20use%20of%20news%2C%20Roy%20Morgan%20Research.pdf">71% of the population </a> rated it as important as national news for social participation. </p>
<p>But the portents aren’t great for quality local news coverage – particularly in regional areas. The likelihood is further desertification of the local news landscape, with poorer communities most affected. </p>
<p>This is confirmed <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert/loss-of-local-news/">by US research</a> that shows the people with the least access to local news are often “the poorest, least educated and most isolated”.</p>
<p>As Matthew Hindman of Harvard’s <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Stickier-News-Matthew-Hindman.pdf">Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy</a> has noted: “Even the clearest local digital success stories employ only a few reporters – far less than the number laid off from the papers in their own cities. </p>
<p>"Worrisome, too, is the fact they have found the most traction in the affluent, social-capital rich communities that need them least.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chrisanthi Giotis works at the Centre for Media Transition which has previously been contracted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to research the impact of digital platforms on news and by the Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA) to research localism.
She is a member of the Australian Labor Party.</span></em></p>Research by the UTS Centre for Media Transition suggests it will be hard for digital-only local newspapers to match what local print editions gave their communities.Chrisanthi Giotis, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Communication, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1290872019-12-19T13:28:10Z2019-12-19T13:28:10ZWhat Boris Johnson’s election win means for British broadcasting<p>No sooner had the ballots closed than Boris Johnson’s new government was advancing and accelerating its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/15/boris-johnson-threatens-bbc-with-two-pronged-attack">attack on public service broadcasting</a>, threatening to decriminalise nonpayment of the licence fee, boycott the BBC’s flagship Today programme and review the remit of Channel 4.</p>
<p>Labour, meanwhile, has <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bbc-general-election-bias-labour-corbyn-andy-mcdonald-boris-johnson-a9248226.html">accused the BBC of “conscious” bias</a>, arguing that the corporation’s conduct during the election campaign contributed to Labour’s loss. </p>
<p>While the BBC warned that decriminalisation <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50800128">could reduce funding for programming</a> by up to £200 million, it’s feasible that a much larger proportion of its <a href="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/annualreport/2018-19.pdf">£3.6 billion licence fee income</a> could be at risk. </p>
<p>One of the key concerns is journalism. Of all the BBC’s output, news and current affairs is the most time-consuming and expensive. The fleeting shelf life of news content – coupled with the costs of maintaining a global network of producers, reporters and researchers – meant that last year the corporation spent <a href="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/annualreport/2018-19.pdf">£355 million on television news and current affairs programming</a>, more than any other genre of programming. </p>
<p>If the Conservative threats are realised, the capacity of journalists to scrutinise and hold to account MPs, councillors and other elected officials around the country could be severely diminished.</p>
<p>The BBC is already struggling to fund the £5 million annual costs of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/04/bbc-asks-private-sector-to-subsidise-local-reporters-scheme">Local Democracy Reporter scheme</a>, which pays for around 150 local journalists in local news media to scrutinise local politics.</p>
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<p>Before introducing the local democracy scheme, the coalition government of 2010 to 2015 ringfenced £40 million of BBC funding to establish a network of local television news services. <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/72921/Local-TV-Framework_July2011.doc">It argued</a> the network would play an important role in “the wider localism agenda, holding institutions to account and increasing civic engagement at a local level”. But of the 34 local services established since 2012, at least 12 have failed to launch, collapsed or been merged. The largest local broadcaster, That’s TV, recently <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48939451">closed 13 of its 20 studios</a>. </p>
<h2>Reduced scrutiny</h2>
<p>Weakened accountability of local politicians chimes with Johnson’s unprecedented avoidance of public scrutiny during the election campaign. This was most notably seen in his refusal <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andrew-neil-boris-johnson-interview-video-questions-nhs-social-care-austerity-a9234956.html">to agree to an interview</a> with the BBC’s Andrew Neil, his <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/ofcom-channel-4-climate-debate-tory-complaint-boris-johnson-empty-chair-ice-sculpture-1331399">empty-chairing at the Channel 4 Leader’s Climate Debate</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/11/boris-johnson-hides-in-fridge-to-avoid-piers-morgan-interview">his hiding in a fridge</a> to avoid an ITV interview on Good Morning Britain.</p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>Sidestepping broadcast journalism enables Johnson to weaken the appeal of public service broadcasting and drive audiences on to social media, where they can be reached directly without interference from journalistic mediators. Johnson’s disdain for the media during the campaign may not be quite on a par with Trump’s tweet of August 5 2018, in which he labelled the media “dangerous and sick” and an “enemy of the people”, but there are clear parallels between the Johnson and Trump strategies.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1026069857589227520"}"></div></p>
<h2>Plight of local journalism</h2>
<p>Local and regional news is particularly vulnerable because, while no less expensive to gather and produce than international news, it attracts small regional audiences and has little export value. Earlier in 2019, the BBC cut regional nightly news bulletins <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/bbc-to-reduce-length-of-news-at-ten-by-10-minutes/">from 11 minutes to seven</a> and the number of <a href="https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/broadcasting/2019/01/bbc-cuts-three-senior-posts-part-england-restructure">staff supporting regional news</a>.</p>
<p>The local newspaper industry is collapsing as readers demand free online news and advertisers find greater reach and targeting on social media. Between 2005 and 2018, there was a net <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/more-than-40-local-news-titles-closed-in-2018-with-loss-of-some-editorial-275-jobs-new-figures-show/">loss of 245 local news titles</a> in the UK. Today, an estimated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/29/local-newspapers-closing-down-communities-withering">58% of the country</a> is not served by a regional newspaper.</p>
<p>When establishing the local television network, then culture minister Jeremy Hunt <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7895994/Jeremy-Hunt-Ministry-of-Fun-is-about-to-get-very-horrible.html">cited the success of local TV in the US</a>, claiming:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Birmingham Alabama has eight local TV stations, despite being a quarter of the size of our Birmingham. New York has six … It’s crazy that a city like Sheffield doesn’t have local TV.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But <a href="https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/06/30143308/state-of-the-news-media-report-2016-final.pdf">a study by the Pew Research Center</a> showed how US local television is only kept afloat by “huge influxes of campaign cash” for political advertising during election and midterm years. In the UK, party political broadcasts are transmitted for free, and strictly controlled.</p>
<p>In other parts of Europe and elsewhere in North America, local journalism is heavily subsidised by the state and through levies on major telecoms companies. </p>
<p>Most Canadian towns have <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78549/Local-TV-Report-Dec10_FullReport.pdf">at least one community television service</a> and legislation requires commercial cable broadcasters to support community channels. </p>
<p>In Germany, most cities have a local channel subsidised by the regional government. There, local programming is particularly strong because national broadcasters are <a href="https://rm.coe.int/regional-and-local-broadcasting-in-europe/1680789635">not allowed to provide detailed coverage of local issues</a>, so competition is limited for local channels. </p>
<p>In Spain, around <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78549/Local-TV-Report-Dec10_FullReport.pdf">800 local television services have been licensed</a> since the digital switch-over in 2005, with around half funded by local governments and the rest supported by larger media groups. </p>
<h2>Post-Brexit broadcasting</h2>
<p>Now that a January 2020 Brexit seems certain, one of the most pressing media concerns is whether the UK will continue to align with <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/audiovisual-media-services-directive-avmsd">EU broadcasting standards</a>. Departure from EU alignment could mean more adverts per hour on UK channels, more product placement and a relaxation of the bans on advertising junk food to children.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307916/original/file-20191219-11951-1vlkvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The most trusted news brands in the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the UK adopts the more commercial US approach to broadcasting, the BBC could be forced to accept advertising or shift to a subscription model. Relaxation of the rules on political advertising is a further possibility. Such a move would probably benefit parties with greater spending power, while further damaging – rather than addressing – concerns around the integrity of political communications.</p>
<p>But Johnson might do well to remember that the BBC remains <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2019-06/DNR_2019_FINAL_0.pdf">the most popular and the most trusted</a> news source in the UK, across platforms, across generations and across political perspectives, and is well respected worldwide.</p>
<p>Dismantling the nation’s favourite broadcaster is unlikely to be as easy as he might imagine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Traynor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There were some ominous sounds coming out of the election campaign about what the Conservatives might have planned for the UK’s public broadcaster.Kerry Traynor, Lecturer in Professional and Media Writing, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1266372019-11-19T14:05:41Z2019-11-19T14:05:41ZLocal news outlets can fill the media trust gap – but the public needs to pony up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301851/original/file-20191114-26207-1rfv82d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C4246%2C2820&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The appetite for smart local news is there. The challenge is figuring out how to make it profitable.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/american-state-kentucky-on-map-world-1497157595?src=95c357ea-9b93-45d2-88ad-8a4a95cfb182-1-29">Sharaf Maksumov/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the polarization of America’s media and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/impeachment-democrats-republicans-polarization/601264/">politics</a> reaching a fever pitch, many news consumers – “worn out by a fog of political news,” as a recent New York Times feature <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/us/polls-media-fake-news.html">put it</a> – are responding by tuning out altogether.</p>
<p>Media distrust, which has <a href="https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer">intensified globally</a> in recent years, is also a likely factor. A recent Gallup poll <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/267047/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx">found</a> only 13% of Americans trust the media “a great deal,” while 28% indicated that they trust the media “a fair amount.” </p>
<p>However, evidence suggests a more favorable situation for local journalism.</p>
<p><a href="http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ebnyhan/media-trust-report-2018.pdf">Poynter’s 2018 Media Trust Survey</a> and a recent <a href="https://www.knightfoundation.org/reports/state-of-public-trust-in-local-news">Knight Foundation-Gallup study</a> each found that trust in local media is higher than for national media.</p>
<p>Only 31% of Americans say they trust reporting from national news outlets “a great deal” or “quite a lot,” while 45% of Americans say the same for reporting from local news organizations. </p>
<p>Forty-five percent still isn’t great; clearly, there’s work to be done. These efforts are complicated by the fact that <a href="https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/11/01/end-of-local-news/">many newsrooms are struggling financially</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this backdrop, I’m optimistic. I’ve spent two decades <a href="https://damianradcliffe.wordpress.com/about/hyperlocal/">researching</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianradcliffe/">working in</a> local news. I believe local media outlets are in a position to creatively cater to audiences burned out by beltway drama. </p>
<p>Here are four ways local newsrooms can forge deeper relationships with the communities they serve. </p>
<h2>1. Interact with readers</h2>
<p>With newsroom employment <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/09/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-dropped-by-a-quarter-since-2008/">down 25% since 2008</a> – the equivalent of 28,000 jobs – there are fewer boots on the ground. Nonetheless, opportunities to engage with audiences are greater than ever.</p>
<p>One way is to be visible – online and in real life.</p>
<p>Journalists can think about opportunities for face-to-face interaction with readers. Some outlets have started holding <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/slow-news-venture-tortoise-creates-inclusive-members-model-with-potential-to-extend-into-local-journalism/">open editorial meetings</a>, in which journalists discuss the stories they’re developing, or <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brews-and-news-with-voice-of-san-diego-journalists-march-20th-tickets-55609776338">meet-and-greets</a> with the public. There are also opportunities to engage with readers via social media, whether it’s through <a href="https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/success-stories/globalnews-live">Facebook Live</a> or Q&As on Reddit, also known as “<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/a4wvov/we_are_the_journalists_who_produced_the/">Ask Me Anything</a>.”</p>
<p>These efforts matter, because local journalists are often the only journalists people ever meet. As a result, they can serve as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-local-journalism-can-upend-the-fake-news-narrative-104630">proxy for perceptions of the wider industry</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Teach the process</h2>
<p>Another way to build trust is to explain how journalism works.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/how-does-journalism-happen-poll.php">Research suggests</a> audiences don’t understand how journalism is produced, nor do they understand some of the terminology reporters deploy.</p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/how-does-journalism-happen-poll.php">2018 survey</a> found 60% of respondents believed reporters get paid by their sources “sometimes or very often.” <a href="https://twitter.com/mayerjoy">Joy Mayer</a>, director of the <a href="https://medium.com/trusting-news">Trusting News</a> project, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/demystifying-media/joy-mayer">told me</a> that when journalists talk about “anonymous sources,” many people assume the journalist doesn’t know who the source is, either.</p>
<p>It’s not difficult to <a href="https://niemanstoryboard.org/storyboard-category/annotation-tuesday/">address this</a>, and doing so could help engender more trust in journalistic practice.</p>
<p>In December 2018, for example, journalists at The Oregonian published <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/02/the-oregonianoregonlives-ghosts-of-highway-20-named-finalist-for-scripps-howard-award.html">a series</a> about five seemingly disparate crimes and their connection to John Ackroyd, a convicted murderer. But they didn’t just publish the pieces and wait for <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/editors/2019/06/the-oregonianoregonlives-ghosts-of-highway-20-wins-4-regional-emmy-awards.html">the awards</a>. They also shared articles <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2018/12/ghosts-of-highway-20-how-we-reported-the-series.html">outlining</a> their reporting methods, alongside an <a href="https://projects.oregonlive.com/ghostsofhighway20/stories-annotated.pdf">annotated version of the full series</a> with footnotes and links to related documents.</p>
<h2>3. Give readers what they want</h2>
<p>Without this type of transparency, as a recent Knight report <a href="https://knightfoundation.org/articles/local-news-is-more-trusted-than-national-news-but-that-could-change/">acknowledged</a>, trust in local news “is vulnerable to the same perceptions of partisan bias that threaten confidence in the national media.” </p>
<p>One further way to try to eliminate this is to cede some control to the audience.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/12/the-editorial-meeting-of-the-future/">In an article published by Harvard’s Nieman Lab</a>, newsroom consultant Jennifer Brandel and editor Mónica Guzmán argue that it’s important for journalists to shift their approach to coverage. </p>
<p>The editorial meeting of the future, they write, “won’t start with our ideas – we’ll start with the information gaps the public demonstrates they have, and focus our efforts squarely on filling those gaps.”</p>
<p>Getting audiences to <a href="https://www.scpr.org/socal-so-curious/">submit questions</a> and <a href="https://listenerspodcast.uoregon.edu/">listening</a> to their needs can actually <a href="https://www.kuow.org/stories/you-won-t-believe-what-s-at-the-bottom-of-lake-washington">result in stories</a> that journalists might not otherwise have produced.</p>
<p>The Knight Foundation’s <a href="https://knightfoundation.org/press/releases/new-gallup-knight-study-local-news-should-be-available-to-all-yet-americans-divided-on-how-to-pay-for-it/">recent research</a> highlighted opportunities to put this principle into operation. Nearly two-thirds of their respondents want more coverage on subjects like drug addiction, K-12 education, the environment and planned public works. They also want local outlets <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/white-papers/characteristics-effective-accountability-journalists/">to do a better job</a> holding those in power accountable.</p>
<h2>4. Encourage readers to pay</h2>
<p>However, the uncertain finances of many small newsrooms are a major roadblock to experimentation and giving readers the content they crave.</p>
<p>Declining revenue has meant more than 1 in 5, or 1,800, local newspapers <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/10/16/the-u-s-newspaper-crisis-is-growing-more-than-1-in-5-local-papers-have-closed-since-2004/">have closed</a> since 2004. Today, over 1,300 communities <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2018/about-1300-u-s-communities-have-totally-lost-news-coverage-unc-news-desert-study-finds/">lack</a> original local reporting.</p>
<p>Most readers simply don’t realize how dire the situation is for some outlets. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.journalism.org/2019/03/26/most-americans-think-their-local-news-media-are-doing-well-financially-few-help-to-support-it/">According to the Pew Research Center</a>, 71% of Americans “think their local news media are doing just fine financially.” This may explain why only 14% of them financially supported a local news source in the past year.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/11/americans-are-more-willing-to-pay-for-local-news-when-they-knew-local-newspapers-are-in-trouble-a-new-study-says/">readers indicated</a> that they “were more likely to subscribe or otherwise support their local newspaper if it were the only one in their area and at risk of shutting down.” </p>
<p><a href="https://knightfoundation.org/reports/putting-a-price-tag-on-local-news/">New research</a> shows that audiences value local news, and 61% of Americans <a href="https://kf-site-production.s3.amazonaws.com/media_elements/files/000/000/440/original/State_of_Public_Trust_in_Local_Media_final_.pdf">say</a> their local news organizations do an “excellent” or “good” job covering what’s going on in their area. But the Knight Foundation’s latest report, “<a href="https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Putting-a-Price-Tag-on-Local-News-final-updated.pdf">Putting a Price Tag on Local News</a>,” also finds that few readers are currently paying for it.</p>
<p>Clearly, many readers don’t realize how precarious things are. Newsrooms therefore must make a better case for the value of their work and why it needs to be supported.</p>
<h2>A civic imperative</h2>
<p>Until then, local outlets will have to <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/11/doing-more-with-less-seven-practical-tips-for-local-newsrooms-to-strrrrretch-their-resources/">do more with less</a>. </p>
<p>This isn’t easy. But even the smallest newsrooms, like the <a href="https://www.cgsentinel.com/">Cottage Grove Sentinel</a> in Oregon, have been able to successfully experiment with <a href="https://cgsentinel.com/article/grove-report-january-22-2019">new formats</a> and ways <a href="https://medium.com/damian-radcliffe/the-rise-of-engagement-online-and-in-real-life-11a0c261a500">to engage with readers</a>. </p>
<p>Americans <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2019/03/26/americans-give-fairly-high-marks-to-their-local-news-media-especially-when-journalists-are-seen-as-connected-to-the-community/">believe local news outlets</a> are accurate, useful, trustworthy and caring. Yet without a vibrant local news industry, <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/1078087419838058">fewer people run for office</a> and citizens become <a href="https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/local-newspapers-civic-engagement/">less engaged</a> about elections. </p>
<p>“The diminishment of local news is to democracies what climate change is to the environment,” argues <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/people/tim-franklin/">Tim Franklin</a>, the head of Northwestern University’s <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/">Medill Local News Initiative</a>. “It’s a slow-motion crisis, the effects of which we’re just beginning to see.” </p>
<p>The appetite for hard-hitting, relevant, local news is clearly there. The big question is how best to tap into it and satiate it – all while ensuring local journalists can pay the bills.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damian Radcliffe continues to engage in freelance creative and consulting work related to his expertise on media and technology matters. He is a member of the Online News Association and has received funding from the Agora Journalism Center and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism to research developments into business models, innovation and civic engagement in local media.</span></em></p>Americans truly value local news. But 71% think that their local news outlets are doing just fine financially – which might explain why only 14% paid for a local news source in the past year.Damian Radcliffe, Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1174272019-05-21T14:28:53Z2019-05-21T14:28:53ZGrenfell Tower: warnings might have been heard if not for the collapse of local journalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275417/original/file-20190520-69178-1dbzsz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C23%2C5218%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Lauren Hurley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48313472">delay to the publication of the report</a> into the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which claimed 72 lives in a disastrous – and possibly preventable – fire at the London tower block, has been greeted with dismay and anger by survivors and their supporters.</p>
<p>Inquiry solicitor Caroline Featherstone said, in a letter to survivors and people who lost family in the fire, that writing the first phase of the report proved to be “far more complex and time-consuming” than anticipated. Its release has been pushed back to October.</p>
<p>The big question that needs to be answered is whether Grenfell should have have happened at all – and why nobody picked up on the very public warnings from tower residents that just such a tragedy was likely to happen. A growing chorus of voices from local and national journalism has pinpointed the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/02/grenfell-tower-local-newspapers-authority-journalism">absence of dedicated local media around Grenfell</a>, saying nobody was looking.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1128386213747019776"}"></div></p>
<p>Six months before the fire struck, Grenfell Tower residents had flagged their serious concerns about the tower in a post on their well-established <a href="https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire">community blog</a> which specifically highlight the very real risk of “a serious fire”.</p>
<p>Why were these warnings not heeded? The tenants’ blog had repeatedly flagged serious safety concerns which would ordinarily be a rich source of local news for on-the-beat reporters.</p>
<h2>Desperate times</h2>
<p>Dominic Ponsford, the editor of the UK’s Press Gazette, told me in a telephone interview in August 2017 that the number of local journalists has fallen by at least a half in the past decade. He also described regional print media to be in “fairly desperate times” facing a year-on-year, 10% decline in print presence. </p>
<p>Ponsford has chronicled the issue of the lack of local media coverage about Grenfell. He <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/journalists-missed-concerns-raised-by-grenfell-residents-blog-but-specialist-mag-raised-alarm-on-tower-block-fire-safety">highlighted that</a> despite the openly available warnings from Grenfell residents on their blog site, which should have been essential reading for local journalists, no journalists picked up the November 2016 prediction about the catastrophe to come.</p>
<p>Geoff Baker was news editor for the Kensington and Chelsea News from its relaunch in 2014, until he was made redundant through cuts in April 2017. His only reporter left the company a few months earlier. He also covered four other west London titles in his role. Baker <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/grenfell-tower-fire-disaster-suggests-more-journalism-is-needed-in-london-not-less/">told the Press Gazette</a> in September 2018:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If someone had phoned me or sent me a release I would have done it, but it just didn’t come on the radar, simple as that. Just because there’s so much else to do if you are doing it on your tod. To my huge regret I wish that I had … Whether that would have made the council change their minds I very much doubt it… It was simply that I didn’t have the time to pull out all the stops because all the stops were already pulled out on other things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Grant Feller is a journalist and corporate media consultant. He began his career on the Kensington News and Chelsea News, the two titles had an editorial team of ten and faced competition for stories from the Kensington and Chelsea Times and the Evening Standard (which then devoted more resources to local borough stories).</p>
<p>Asked whether he thought the concerns of residents would have been picked up by the Kensington News in 1990, Feller <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/former-kensington-reporter-says-local-press-would-have-picked-up-on-grenfell-fire-safety-concerns-in-pre-internet-era">told the Press Gazette</a>: “One hundred per cent yes, we would have picked up on that.” </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we hadn’t found that story ourselves we would have been bollocked by the editor. Any local newspaper journalist worth his or her salt would have been all over that story because of that blog. We would have known about that local group’s concerns because we were very much in the local community. We would have pored over the council meeting agendas and asked questions of the councillors and the officers. But today there is no-one there. Those people can do what they like because there’s no journalists looking at what they are doing. That’s why local journalism is so important.</p>
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<h2>Democratic deficit</h2>
<p>In the past decade, <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/cmcp/local-news.pdf">hundreds of local UK newspapers have closed</a> and each week brings news of more. Thousands of jobs have gone. Media owners have taken to trying to retrieve revenue from online content. As a result the journalists’ “nose for news” has been downgraded with journalists’ editorial priority now to chase stories designed to drive an audience online.</p>
<p>Candyfloss videos of squirrels chasing puppies and crime coverage from cheap CCTV footage is popular with online readers but, as Liverpool City Council’s chief executive, Ged Fitzgerald, told me in March 2017, it risks ghettoising cities with crime heavy stories that can scare off people planning to move into or invest in the area.</p>
<p>More and more media commentators are warning of the “democratic deficit” created by the decline of local journalism. Matt Chorley, in his <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/closing-local-papers-is-good-news-for-lazy-mps-and-corrupt-councils-ktvqvt2zx">“Red Box” column in The Times</a>, said: “Every time a paper closes, lazy MPs, corrupt councilors, dodgy police chiefs, rip off businesses and anyone in the dock can relax a little. This isn’t just nostalgia. The great and the good didn’t stop behaving badly because we all got Snapchat and iPlayer. Grenfell Tower tells us what happens when poorer areas lose their voice in the local media. Blogs aren’t enough.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A new book called Local democracy, Journalism and Public Relations by Carmel O'Toole and co-authored by her fellow Sheffield Hallam University academic Adrian Roxan, published is published on May 21, 2019.</span></em></p>Residents were blogging about the tower block’s safety issues well before the fire, but there were few reporters around to pick up on the story.Carmel O'Toole, Senior Lecturer in Media and Public Relations, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1163592019-05-06T03:55:20Z2019-05-06T03:55:20ZAfter a dark decade for Australia’s regional newspapers, a hopeful light flickers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272680/original/file-20190506-103063-fjhs7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian Community Media's mastheads include The Canberra Times, The Newcastle Herald, The Border Mail (in Albury), The Illawarra Mercury (in Wollongong), The Ballarat Courier, The Examiner (in Launceston) and the Bendigo Advertiser.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade the profits of 160-odd regional and rural publications that make up the former Fairfax business division known as Australian Community Media (ACM) have <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/07/26/regional-newspapers-risk-nine-takeover-fairfax/">fallen steeply</a>. </p>
<p>In 2012 the division made a A$169 million profit. In 2018 it was A$67.5 million.</p>
<p>Nine Entertainment Co acquired the division with its $3 billion takeover of Fairfax Media last year. It has been keen to get rid of it <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/nine-boss-flags-divestments-in-matter-of-months-20181209-p50l5b.html">ever since</a>. </p>
<p>There are grounds for some optimism about the long-anticipated <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-30/nine-sells-fairfax-community-newspapers-to-the-cat/11058066">sale</a>. It may signal better fortunes for regional publishing. But any optimism must be tempered by ongoing concerns about the viability of the local news business model. </p>
<h2>What’s in the deal?</h2>
<p>ACM’s new owner is a 50:50 partnership between real estate advertising mogul Antony Catalano and Thorney Investment Group. They are paying Nine A$125 million for the 160-odd mastheads and 130 associated websites. The deal involves Nine getting $10 million of advertising space, and content and printing sharing arrangements for a period of time.</p>
<p>Thorney Investment Group has established itself over the past 25 yeas as one of the most profitable investors in Australian property and resources. Its foray into local news may appear somewhat peripheral to its general investment profile, despite an ongoing investment in Domain, Fairfax’s real estate brand, which was listed as a separate entity on the <a href="https://www.asx.com.au/asx/share-price-research/company/DHG/details">Australian Stock Exchange</a> in 2017.</p>
<p>Catalano, on the other hand, has a long and colourful history with Fairfax’s real estate classifieds business. He is expected to chair the new company.</p>
<p>A one-time property editor at The Age, he was made redundant in 2008 and went on to found, with the backing of major real estate brokers, the free property magazine The Weekly Review. </p>
<p>The magazine took off, winning business away from The Age’s real estate pages. In 2011 Fairfax bought half of Catalano’s Metro Media Publishing business <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/forward-planning/investment-strategy/property-news-and-insights/14874-fairfax-pays-35-million-for-half-of-the-weekly-review.html">for A$35 million</a>. It bought the other half in 2015 (for <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/group/press_release/fairfax-acquires-100-interest-mmp/">A$72 million</a>). It then merged the business with Domain, putting Catalano at the helm.</p>
<p>He left his role with Domain in January last year, just two months <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/antony-catalano-buys-nines-regional-newspapers-576941">after its successful listing</a> on the Australian Stock Exchange. Reportedly his resignation came amid complaints of a <a href="https://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/antony-catalano-the-fall-of-a-party-boy-20180207-h0v13z">party-boy culture</a> in the Domain workplace.</p>
<p>Catalano’s successful bid for Domain is a particular coup. He <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/former-domain-ceo-antony-catalano-makes-play-for-fairfax-media-552799">attempted to thwart Nine’s takeover bid</a> of Fairfax at the 11th hour by proposing to buy 19.9% of Fairfax shares. </p>
<p>Bidding against him and Thorney were private equity giants Anchorage Capital Partners and Allegro Funds. Seven West’s regional TV affiliate, Prime Media Group, and News Corp were also rumoured to have been interested.</p>
<h2>Changing priorities</h2>
<p>A few months ago Crikey labelled ACM’s impending sale a “<a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/02/28/nine-regional-papers-community/">blueprint for disaster</a>” regardless of who won the bid, describing closures and consolidation of some local papers as “almost certain”.</p>
<p>Catalano, on the other hand, has talked up the potential of the larger daily regional mastheads. These include The Canberra Times, The Newcastle Herald, The Border Mail (based in Albury), The Illawarra Mercury (in Wollongong), The Ballarat Courier, The Examiner (in Launceston), and the Bendigo Advertiser. Between them, these papers reach about half ACM’s total audience of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/how-will-antony-catalano-revive-regional-newspapers/11061236">up to eight million</a> people.</p>
<p>Catalano says he is looking to invest “<a href="https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6098933/new-owner-vows-to-beef-up-mercury-after-buying-regional-newspaper-group-from-nine/">aggressively</a>” in these areas.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-restoring-accuracy-will-help-journalism-win-back-credibility-116464">Why restoring accuracy will help journalism win back credibility</a>
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<p>Without offering much detail, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/how-will-antony-catalano-revive-regional-newspapers/11061236">he has intimated</a> there were ways to monetise ACM’s audience that didn’t happen under Fairfax, due to it having “bigger priorities in the face of very significant structural decline in the newspaper business”.</p>
<p>“Under us, it’s our only priority,” he said.</p>
<p>However, when pushed on whether there would be efficiencies, including redundancies and closures, he conceded there was likely to be some “consolidation” <a href="https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6098933/new-owner-vows-to-beef-up-mercury-after-buying-regional-newspaper-group-from-nine/?src=rss&utm_email=b9ee389143&utm_source=Illawarra+Mercury&utm_campaign=5ada9e8bb5-NEWSLETTER_EDITORS_PICK_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_63532331c1-5ada9e8bb5-65999933">in print operations</a>.</p>
<p>Such consolidation might echo Fairfax’s 2017 <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/fairfax-to-shut-six-community-newspapers-11-jobs-to-go-482887">merger of six Western Sydney suburban newspapers</a> into a single North West Magazine. </p>
<h2>The state of local journalism</h2>
<p>It would be naive to be overly hopeful about a new dawn for regional newspapers given the broader context of the Australian news industry.</p>
<p>According to the journalists’ union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, at least <a href="https://www.meaa.org/download/meaa-submission-to-public-interest-journalism-inquiry-170714/">3,000 journalism jobs</a> have been lost since mass redundancies began about seven years ago. Cutbacks, the union says, have seen “rural and regional audiences lose their "voice” and their access to local information".</p>
<p>At the regional daily with the largest readership, The Newcastle Herald, the editorial staff has been cut from about 100 to less than 24. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-local-newspaper-means-to-a-regional-city-like-newcastle-116276">What a local newspaper means to a regional city like Newcastle</a>
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<p>Workloads have escalated in consequence. Veteran journalist and union rep <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/newcastle-herald-cuts-hit-hard/9973134">Ian Kirkwood told ABC’s Media Watch</a> that journalists, perhaps once expected to produce one or two news stories a day, were now required to produce six, including headlines and photographs. </p>
<p>The New Beats study, a <a href="http://www.newbeatsblog.com/">comprehensive longitudinal study</a> of redundancies in Australian journalism since 2012, calculates the total revenue of Australian newspapers <a href="https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/19938/2/New%20Beats%20Submission%20to%202018%20Future%20of%20Work%20Inquiry.pdf">fell</a> from A$6.2 billion in 2007-08 to A$3 billion in 2016-17.</p>
<p>The New Beats researchers say the “market failure of regional journalism” is that local advertising is simply insufficient to make a local newspaper financially viable. How Catalano is going to change that, given his stated <a href="https://mainstreetwiththeabcspeterryan.blogspot.com/2019/05/antony-catalano-dismisses-paywalls-as.html">opposition to paywalls</a>, is an open question.</p>
<p>But given the unrelenting bad news faced by newspaper newsrooms over the past decade, it’s no surprise journalists are hoping for the best. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-30/nine-sells-fairfax-community-newspapers-to-the-cat/11058066">ABC reports</a> that sources within the Canberra Times regard the deal as the best of available options. The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance has expressed cautious optimism, <a href="https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6098933/new-owner-vows-to-beef-up-mercury-after-buying-regional-newspaper-group-from-nine/">tempered by concerns</a> investment in the larger regional mastheads will come at the expense of smaller publications.</p>
<p>Only time will tell whether it is the hopes or the fears that are the most prophetic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steinar Ellingsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The sale of Australian Community Media may signal better fortunes for regional publishing. But there are ongoing concerns about the viability of the local news business model.Steinar Ellingsen, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Communication and Media, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1162762019-05-03T06:11:28Z2019-05-03T06:11:28ZWhat a local newspaper means to a regional city like Newcastle<p>The Newcastle Herald has won eight Walkley awards for journalistic excellence over the past seven years. This includes a Gold Walkley for the groundbreaking reportage that led to Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse. It has told stories of national and international importance.</p>
<p>But this local newspaper, serving the NSW regional city of Newcastle and the surrounding Hunter region, is not profitable enough for Nine Entertainment Co, which acquired it in the takeover of Fairfax Media last year.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-what-does-the-nine-fairfax-merger-mean-for-diversity-and-quality-journalism-102189">Media Files: What does the Nine Fairfax merger mean for diversity and quality journalism?</a>
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<p>Nine has offloaded it and the rest of Fairfax’s Australian Community Media (ACM) division, comprising about 160 regional news titles, 130 community-based news websites and 650 editorial staff. </p>
<p>But this is the best news the staff of the Newcastle Herald have had for a long time. There’s a cautious optimism among both staff and readers that the newspaper (which began as the Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River District News in 1858) could undergo – like the city itself – revitalisation.</p>
<h2>Cautious optimism</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272289/original/file-20190502-103063-pwor6g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272289/original/file-20190502-103063-pwor6g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272289/original/file-20190502-103063-pwor6g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272289/original/file-20190502-103063-pwor6g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272289/original/file-20190502-103063-pwor6g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272289/original/file-20190502-103063-pwor6g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272289/original/file-20190502-103063-pwor6g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Newcastle Herald, Saturday December 8, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Newcastle Herald</span></span>
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<p>The new owner is a consortium of former Fairfax real estate supremo Antony Catalano and the Thorney Investment Group, a company that “concentrates on producing <a href="https://www.thorneyopportunities.com.au/news-announcements">absolute returns for shareholders</a> over the medium to long term”.</p>
<p>Catalano has said he plans to “grow the business, not shrink it to greatness”. He has assured Herald staff that he is about “hiring, not firing”. That’s comforting following cutbacks and two brutal rounds of redundancies in the past seven years. </p>
<p>Yet these inspiring assurances may prove hard to keep. </p>
<p>Newspapers – and journalism more generally – still face structural headwinds. Neither platform prophets nor philanthropists have found a dead-cert solution to the dried-up rivers of gold once richly fed by classified and display advertising streams. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-decision-to-paywall-nzs-largest-newspaper-will-affect-other-media-116152">How the decision to paywall NZ's largest newspaper will affect other media</a>
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<p>The ACM division is still profitable, but its revenue in the first half of the 2019 financial year was down 8% on the previous year (A$194.1 million, against A$212.1 million), with advertising revenue down 13% (to A$121.2 million). </p>
<p>So optimism about the benevolence of the Herald’s new owner must be cautious indeed.</p>
<h2>Benefiting the community</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272273/original/file-20190502-103049-1hdomjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C22%2C1496%2C2129&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272273/original/file-20190502-103049-1hdomjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272273/original/file-20190502-103049-1hdomjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272273/original/file-20190502-103049-1hdomjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272273/original/file-20190502-103049-1hdomjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272273/original/file-20190502-103049-1hdomjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272273/original/file-20190502-103049-1hdomjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Newcastle Herald, Monday, October 22, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Newcastle Herald</span></span>
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<p>But optimistic we must be. Research provides empirical evidence to support just how important a local newspaper is to a local community.</p>
<p>According to a US study published in the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/public-finance-local-news.php">Columbia Journalism Review</a> in 2018, local government becomes more wasteful without a local newspaper. </p>
<p>The researchers compared local government costs in counties where a newspaper had closed with demographically comparable counties still with a newspaper. It’s evidence media scrutiny is essential to governments being kept accountable.</p>
<p>Local media coverage is also associated with better informed voters and higher voter turnouts, the study’s authors suggest.</p>
<p>Good local journalism sees, knows and cares about the local community. It reflects that community’s history, present and where its future might lie. </p>
<h2>Setting the agenda</h2>
<p>This is certainly the case with the Newcastle Herald.</p>
<p>Newcastle is the nation’s second-biggest non-capital city, with a population of about 325,000; the population of the Greater Hunter Region is about 625,000. The Newcastle Herald is the only newspaper serving the region six days a week. </p>
<p>As such the newspaper plays a significant role in setting the news agenda for other local media.</p>
<p>Journalists and production staff at remaining commercial news outlets in Newcastle all operate – in the words of one senior newsroom contact – on the smell of an oily rag. Repeated savage cuts and increased networking have played their part in reducing commercial radio bulletins to rip-and-reads of the day’s Herald. Even the ABC has decreased the number of local radio bulletins it provides. </p>
<p>The Newcastle Herald clearly influences the city’s only local commercial television news bulletin (from NBN Television, owned by Nine Entertainment). </p>
<h2>Local, original stories</h2>
<p>The Herald has maintained its relevance largely because of the local, original stories it has pursued. It has done this despite its own newsroom being slashed, with a third of the journalists it had seven years ago.</p>
<p>Its much admired reporting on child sexual abuse (the Catholic diocese of Newcastle-Maitland was a hotspot of crimes and cover-ups) is just one example. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/review-spotlights-revealing-story-of-child-abuse-in-my-home-town-and-maybe-yours-53955">Review: Spotlight's revealing story of child abuse in my home town – and maybe yours</a>
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<p>The paper has also led the way with coverage of the <a href="https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5309813/a-catastrophe-for-some-women-pelvic-mesh-report/">medical traumas of local women</a> that propelled a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/MeshImplants">Senate inquiry</a> into pelvic mesh devices in 2017. </p>
<p>It also exposed the story of Cabbage Tree Road, a cluster of 50 cancer cases near a drain carrying toxic chemicals from the Williamtown RAAF base. The Herald’s reporting came from journalists knocking on the door of every home on the road. (The NSW Health Department <a href="https://www.theherald.com.au/stry/5229588/outcry-as-study-dismisses-williamtowns-cancer-cluster-fears/?cs=6099">has dismissed</a> there being a link.) </p>
<p>Investigative journalism is expensive to produce. No other local commercial outlet in the area has the resources to do public-interest and accountability journalism. They all rely on the Newcastle Herald to set the agenda. </p>
<p>For the good of Newcastle and dozens of other local regional and rural communities, we can only hope the Herald’s new owner can do better than its last.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Scott is a paid contributor to the Newcastle Herald</span></em></p>Being sold off is the best news the staff and readers of the Newcastle Herald have had for a long time.Paul Scott, Lecturer, School of Creative Industries, Faculty of Education and Arts, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1090212019-01-09T14:38:24Z2019-01-09T14:38:24ZHow Victorian newspapers changed the look of British towns and cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251507/original/file-20181219-45388-19fldt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At the heart of Edinburgh.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/edinburgh-scotland-uk-may-3-2018-1084055570?src=UdftKRCQvKpg2Ix-8PSSMg-1-5">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the game of rock, paper, scissors, paper is more powerful than rock. And so it was in the second half of the 19th century, when influential local newspapers shifted stones, bricks and mortar to build the townscapes that endure to this day.</p>
<p>Around the British Isles, and across the world, purpose built newspaper offices towered over main streets and market squares – at the heart of of the towns and cities they served. In the UK they became an increasingly common sight from the 1860s onwards, when <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-dawn-of-the-cheap-press-in-victorian-britain-9781474243322/">the end of newspaper taxation led to a boom in local publishing</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, they had an effect on the construction of other public buildings. The act of reading newspapers was considered so important that the biggest room in new public libraries was designed and built specifically for this purpose.</p>
<p>Today, as print circulation and profits fall, local papers are abandoning town centres. Many are selling their landmark buildings and moving to cheaper premises in the suburbs, while some reporters do their work from cafes.</p>
<p>In November 2018, the Bath Chronicle gave up its shopfront home and moved into offices inside a local college. Earlier in the year, the Swindon Advertiser moved more than two miles to a building out of town. </p>
<p>Like redundant churches, these empty or converted buildings are a sign of social change. The Scotsman’s landmark building on North Bridge, Edinburgh, is now a hotel. What was once the home of the Blackburn Times is now a pub. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251502/original/file-20181219-45403-yn9ziq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Blackburn Times they are a changing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the mid-19th century, local newspapers were a far more popular product than they are today. When the gentlemen of Preston, in the north of England, decided to build their own club premises in a Georgian square in 1846, they made sure that the largest room in the building was the one for reading the news. </p>
<p>Working class men were equally keen. In 1851, a group of Carlisle newspaper readers attracted national attention when they opened a purpose-built news room. By 1861, Carlisle had six working-class reading rooms, with around 1,000 members. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251504/original/file-20181219-45394-hpzp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carlisle reading room.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UCLAN</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The design and use of pubs was also influenced by the Victorian newspaper. A sign in the “news room” of Liverpool’s Lion Tavern is still there today, demonstrating how pubs saw the availability of newspapers as an attraction worth advertising. </p>
<p>Landlords even paid skilled public readers to bring the newspaper alive in crowded pubs with readings. One Liverpool licensee, John McArdle, “performed” the paper himself, with Irish nationalists coming to his pub in Crosbie Street every Sunday night to hear him read from The Nation. </p>
<h2>Building an industry</h2>
<p>From the 1850s, when taxes on newspapers were abolished, local papers overtook London papers in sales and readership, as my <a href="https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/835">new book</a> recounts. It was then that booming provincial newspapers began to carve their names in stone, literally, with purpose built offices, proclaiming their importance to the local economy and culture.</p>
<p>One of the first was built by the Hereford Times in 1858. It was in an Italian style with elaborate scrollwork, roof line statues and an ornate cupola, engraved with the newspaper’s title. Such pretentious classical elements were also used by The Times in London. As media historian Carole O’Reilly <a href="https://www.academia.edu/38001395/The_Architecture_of_Newspaper_Buildings">wrote</a>, this was the architectural language of “power, wealth, authority and taste”. Statues of the pioneering printers Gutenberg and Caxton were common, as were town crests, proclaiming local identity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251505/original/file-20181219-45413-mj15ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1858 home of the Hereford Times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Newspapers’ place at the centre of the town symbolised their place in readers’ lives. In the front office, people queued to announce rites of passage in the local paper – births, marriages and deaths – or to consult the fullest archive of local life, the bound back copies of the newspaper.</p>
<p>Another type of landmark building, the public library, would have been much smaller if Victorian newspapers had not been so popular. News rooms were specifically mentioned in the 1850 Public Libraries Act which started the growth of public libraries. Magazines and newspapers were more popular than books, and so were given more space by architects and early librarians. <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015033882336">The manual</a> on how to run these new institutions suggested giving half of the public area to newspapers.</p>
<p>Newspaper popularity also meant a place was needed where you could buy them, and the newsagent shop arrived in the 1860s, adding a messy but popular new look to the streets, with shocking front-page images in the windows and jumbles of billboards on the shop front outside.</p>
<p>Today, those newsagents, libraries, pubs, and of course the newspapers themselves, are all in decline. But the legacy of their boom time in the Victorian era remains – in the architecture and buildings of the towns and cities whose inhabitants once placed enormous value on their local news.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Hobbs is a member of the National Union of Journalists</span></em></p>Buildings built for writing and reading the news altered the urban fabric.Andrew Hobbs, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1078232018-11-29T12:00:19Z2018-11-29T12:00:19ZLocal newspapers had a golden age – but it was 150 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247935/original/file-20181129-170223-oiieiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/typewriter-closeup-shot-concept-news-45055753?src=if9E6Fe3R8z_PG0z9-JZWg-1-50">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This article will be no help whatsoever to Britain’s crumbling local newspaper industry. After 12 years researching the provincial press at its peak period, the second half of the 19th century, I have no answers for today’s business in crisis. </p>
<p>Here in 2018, the fourth largest regional newspaper group in Britain, Johnston Press, recently <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uks-fourth-largest-regional-newspaper-group-johnston-press-enters-administration/">went bust</a> (and was then <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2018/november/johnston-press-buyout-debated-in-the-commons/">“rescued” by a US asset fund</a>). <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tackling-the-threat-to-high-quality-journalism-in-the-uk">A quarter of the country’s local papers have closed in the last ten years</a>. Jobs have been cut, print sales tumble, and profits dwindle (although <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/archant-revenues-fell-in-2017-with-shift-in-ad-spend-to-google-and-facebook-partly-blamed-in-letter-to-shareholders/">many local papers still make money</a>). </p>
<p>Fewer reporters staffing local papers mean fewer original stories, which makes the papers less attractive to readers, which accelerates the decline.</p>
<p>The industry itself blames internet advertising, and competition from Facebook and Google. Others blame local newspaper management, not known for its dynamism or strategic thinking.</p>
<p>It’s all very different from <a href="https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/835">the world of local newspapers 150 years ago</a>, whose proprietors had the gumption to lobby the government, persuading them to nationalise the private telegraph companies, then set up their own news agency, the Press Association, ready to exploit a new era of cheap, telegraphed news. I’ve come to admire the Victorians, for their progressive, dynamic, future-oriented thinking.</p>
<p>It was a fascinating time for the regional press. From the 1860s to the 1930s, the weekly local newspaper was the dominant form of mass media.</p>
<p>There had been more provincial papers than London-based papers since the mid-1700s, but each title only sold a few hundred copies. That all changed in the 1850s and 1860s, when <a href="http://sk.sagepub.com/books/key-concepts-in-journalism-studies/n219.xml">taxes on newspapers were abolished</a>, and a new era began. <a href="http://marxengels.public-archive.net/en/ME0913en.html">Karl Marx described it as a revolution</a> – an “emancipation from London of the provincial press, the decentralisation of journalism”. </p>
<p>For once, Marx was right. In that period, hundreds of new titles were launched, lower prices led to increased sales, and by the early 1860s local newspapers as a whole outsold London-based papers, a situation that continued into the 1930s. Looking back from the London-centric 21st century, it is hard to imagine such a widely spread, decentralised Victorian media industry – although most other developed countries are far less centralised than Britain today.</p>
<p>Each town and city was the cultural centre of its own world, with the local paper at the heart of these cultures. Yet they were linked to each other, and to the wider world (local and global at the same time), sharing content and personnel. </p>
<p>Altogether, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/jrl.2009.5.1.16">the Victorian local press was a national phenomenon</a>, providing a more “national” news service than London papers such as the Times or the Telegraph, which were little more than regional newspapers for Southeast England. Indeed, the category of a “national” newspaper was only invented in the 20th century.</p>
<p>The lower cost of gathering news by telegraph after 1870 helped the provincial press, but the main reason for its popularity was … its localness. It seems obvious, but too many reporters, editors and managers of today’s local papers seem to miss this – that they are not inferior versions of national papers, but something qualitatively different. Local media can do things that national media can’t.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247944/original/file-20181129-170220-1gb2aj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247944/original/file-20181129-170220-1gb2aj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247944/original/file-20181129-170220-1gb2aj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247944/original/file-20181129-170220-1gb2aj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247944/original/file-20181129-170220-1gb2aj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247944/original/file-20181129-170220-1gb2aj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247944/original/file-20181129-170220-1gb2aj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bass beer traded on its origin in Britain’s brewing capital, Burton-on-Trent, and chose the local newspaper to symbolise local identity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bass advertising card, 1909</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Victorian local papers understood this well, and made local patriotism very profitable. They reflected and reported people’s lives and the places they loved in almost comical detail, and that’s what readers wanted. Alfred Gregory, editor of the Tiverton Gazette from 1877 to 1930, recalled how one reader once said of the Devon town: “I love every stone in the place.” </p>
<h2>From cradle to grave</h2>
<p>Editors like Gregory celebrated local distinctiveness, using a whole set of techniques (dialect, local history, football rivalry and more) to give meaning to local lives. Victorian local newspapers were also the dominant publishing platform for poetry and history.</p>
<p>Media scholar James Carey has argued that <a href="http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/CCTP748/Carey-summary-comm-culture.html">our use of media is like a ritual</a>, in which “nothing new is learned but … a particular view of the world is portrayed and confirmed”. This certainly fits what I have discovered of Victorian local newspaper readers, devouring a report of a football match they had attended, or an account of a public meeting at which they spoke. </p>
<p>Rituals that sustained local identity were central to how readers used the local press. The workhouse inmate who guarded his weekly copy as his only remaining comfort, or the exile who read a paper sent from his home town, to take his mind back to the places and people he was separated from.</p>
<p>Australian local media experts <a href="https://www.macmillanihe.com/page/detail/Local-Journalism-in-a-Digital-World/?K=9781137504760">Kristy Hess and Lisa Waller</a> argue that “place still matters in a digital world”. This connection between people and a particular place radiates from every page of a Victorian local newspaper. </p>
<p>In those days, the journalism was subsidised by advertising, but the internet has broken that source of income. The demand is still there, the question is how to make money from supplying that demand in a digital world.</p>
<p>But the industry has not attracted – or even welcomed – the innovators it needs to adapt to this digital age. Without the forward thinking and dynamism so beloved of the Victorians, I fear the local paper will soon be consigned to history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Hobbs is a member of the National Union of Journalists</span></em></p>As the industry continues its decline, a look back at how the Victorians valued their local news gathering operations.Andrew Hobbs, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1046302018-11-27T11:37:17Z2018-11-27T11:37:17ZHow local journalism can upend the ‘fake news’ narrative<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248015/original/file-20181129-170235-1uca3tj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Texas Tribune reporter Jay Root interviews New Mexico State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn along Highway 652 near the Texas-New Mexico border.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune/Courtesy of NewsMatch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally,” Edelman, the global PR and marketing firm <a href="https://www.edelman.com/news-awards/2018-edelman-trust-barometer-reveals-record-breaking-drop-trust-in-the-us">concluded</a> in its annual worldwide study on trust in institutions like the media, business and government.</p>
<p>These international findings are in line with <a href="https://medium.com/trust-media-and-democracy/10-reasons-why-americans-dont-trust-the-media-d0630c125b9e">recent data</a> coming out of the U.S. A 2016 Gallup poll <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx">reported</a> that just 32 percent of Americans trusted the mass media, while an <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/americans-views-media-2018-08-07">Ipsos poll</a> from summer 2018 found that nearly one-third of Americans agreed that the news media is the “enemy of the people.” </p>
<p>How did it come to this? </p>
<p>First, it’s important to recognize that our <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/NicNewman/2015-reuters-institute-digital-news-report-slides-49424275/25">national media</a>, just like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/30/17622894/ezra-klein-show-book-recommendations-sam-rosenfeld-party-polarization-democrat-republican">our politics</a>, has become highly partisan. </p>
<p>Second, it’s necessary to acknowledge that existing media business models <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2018/10/21/how-media-business-models-fuel-polarization-rs.cnn/video/playlists/reliable-sources-highlights/?utm_source=CNN+Media%3A+Reliable+Sources&utm_campaign=18697f50ae-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_11_04_47_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e95cdc16a9-18697f50ae-82750929">fuel this polarization</a>. The drumbeat of an us-versus-them narrative has created what <a href="https://twitter.com/dixontim">Tim Dixon</a>, co-author of a new study titled “<a href="https://hiddentribes.us/">The Hidden Tribes of America</a>,” calls a “cartoonish view of the other side.” </p>
<p>So what can be done to remedy this state of affairs?</p>
<p>Moving forward, I believe that local journalism – a key focus of <a href="http://www.damianradcliffe.com/writing">my research</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianradcliffe">journalistic background</a> – can play an important role in turning the tide and tackling this media malaise. </p>
<h2>The trust factor</h2>
<p>Traditionally, the most important function of the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fourth%20estate">Fourth Estate</a> has been seen as watchdog reporting – journalism that holds authority to account. </p>
<p>But, this type of journalism is not exclusive to larger publications. </p>
<p>The impact and potential importance of these efforts at a local level <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTozHjnf3IGLh6dLC7FRxRvlR50TL5Nq2EBfEDKZU4W4vugqVhL7Yk_WynZrX29F-955ziSTjq9XND8/pubhtml">can be seen</a> each week in the “<a href="https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001jNS0O4Ui3OO7md-9Ryd0WOKdq14U-VfK9aIRH18MLku7VRyaaHESUptkwHw-8FO3X8Dhpw6_U4bO-hrpYrIzmYZy_m-F01qUfYYiFg0mDpo%3D">Local Matters</a>” newsletter founded by the journalists <a href="https://joeycranney.com/">Joey Cranney</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/aglorios">Alexandra Glorioso</a> and <a href="http://www.brettmmurphy.com/">Brett Murphy</a>. </p>
<p>It was also recognized last year when Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/art-cullen">won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing</a>. The twice-weekly newspaper in Iowa has nine-person staff and covers a town with a population of 10,000. </p>
<p>Yet Cullen beat fellow finalists from bigger papers - the Houston Chronicle and Washington Post - because he “successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa” in “editorials fueled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing.”</p>
<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1081180X05283795">Research shows</a>, however, that audiences don’t just want local news outlets to be watchdogs. They want them to be a “good neighbor” too. </p>
<p>Local journalists are often the only journalists that most people will ever meet. So they play a significant role in how the wider profession is perceived.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://twitter.com/cate_m_may?lang=en">Caitlyn May</a>, editor of the <a href="https://www.cgsentinel.com/">Cottage Grove Sentinel</a> in Oregon, this means “it’s essential that journalists leave the office and go out into the community.” One way she does this is by holding a monthly, informal, “Meet the Editor” discussion at a local coffee shop.</p>
<p>Other outlets, such as the <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/">Dallas Morning News</a> with their <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/life/curious-texas/2017/12/18/curious-texas-wonder-texas-people-call-home">Curious Texas</a> project, and KUOW Public Radio in Puget Sound, Washington, are partnering with a start-up called <a href="https://www.wearehearken.com/">Hearken</a> to encourage audiences to submit <a href="http://kuow.org/post/there-really-giant-octopus-under-tacoma-narrows-bridge">questions they want answered</a> or suggest topics that they want local journalists to cover.</p>
<p><a href="http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ebnyhan/media-trust-report-2018.pdf">Poynter’s 2018 Media Trust Survey</a> identified that trust in local media is considerably higher than for national media. By blending watchdog reporting with community engagement, newsrooms can build on this foundation. </p>
<h2>Local news on shaky ground</h2>
<p>But what happens when local media disappears?</p>
<p>“Our sense of community and our trust in democracy at all levels suffer when journalism is lost or diminished,” researchers at the University of North Carolina <a href="https://www.poynter.org/news/about-1300-us-communities-have-totally-lost-news-coverage-unc-news-desert-study-finds">wrote in a recent report</a>. </p>
<p>“In an age of fake news and divisive politics,” they added, “the fate of communities across the country – and of grassroots democracy itself – is linked to the vitality of local journalism.” </p>
<p>Indeed, data suggests a correlation between <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/11/03/civic-engagement-strongly-tied-to-local-news-habits/">consumption of local news and civic engagement</a>. This reinforces <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009365096023002002">earlier research</a> linking local media consumption and “institutionalized participation.” </p>
<p>Put another way, if you consume local news, you’re more likely to vote, contact local officials and participate in other forms of civic and democratic engagement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248016/original/file-20181129-170220-ct3xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248016/original/file-20181129-170220-ct3xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248016/original/file-20181129-170220-ct3xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248016/original/file-20181129-170220-ct3xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248016/original/file-20181129-170220-ct3xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248016/original/file-20181129-170220-ct3xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248016/original/file-20181129-170220-ct3xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alex Rozier of Mississippi Today speaks to Anthony Edwards about food insecurity in Fayette, Miss. in September 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric J. Shelton for Mississippi Today/Courtesy of NewsMatch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although many local newsrooms are going through a period of <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-local-news-on-the-cusp-of-a-renaissance-85711">reinvention and reinvigoration</a>, the sector needs to be on a more even <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-05/local-news-is-dying-and-it-s-taking-small-town-america-with-it">financial keel</a> if it is to successfully move forward. Outlets have to consistently produce high quality work in order to demonstrate their unique value to communities.</p>
<p>This isn’t necessarily easy at a time when their are fewer journalists. Nearly half of all newsroom jobs – more than 20,000 of them – <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/07/newsonomics-the-halving-of-americas-daily-newsrooms/">have disappeared</a> in the past 20 years.</p>
<p>Recent research has highlighted the potential impact of these cuts at the local level. </p>
<p><a href="https://dewitt.sanford.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Assessing-Local-Journalism_100-Communities.pdf">Data produced by Duke University</a> found that “less than half of the news provided by local media outlets is original. Only 17 percent is "truly local” in the sense that it’s actually about events that have taken place within the city or town. </p>
<p>Journalism professor and researcher <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseHolcomb">Jesse Holcomb</a> has <a href="https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/digital-adaptation-in-local-news.php/">noted that local news outlets</a> are still struggling to adapt to digital. He likens the internet to “an ill-fitting suit: functional, but not made for them.”</p>
<p>Holcomb’s analysis of 1,808 local news outlets revealed that less than half offer video content or newsletters. About one-in-10 local news outlets don’t even have a website.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usnewsdeserts.com/">The Expanding News Deserts</a> report, published in October by journalism professor <a href="https://twitter.com/businessofnews">Penny Muse Abernathy</a>, showed that 171 U.S. counties do not have a local newspaper at all. </p>
<p>Nearly half all counties in the U.S. – 1,449 – have only one newspaper, and it’s usually a weekly. Their research <a href="http://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert/">identified</a> a net loss of almost 1,800 local newspapers since 2004. </p>
<p>Diminished resources – which may, in turn, lead to a less ambitious editorial mission – can have a profound impact on the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/public-finance-local-news.php">health</a> of our communities and <a href="https://www.poynter.org/2018/during-the-midterm-elections-local-fact-checking-was-scant/499707">democracy</a>. </p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>To succeed, local news providers must be <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-local-news-on-the-cusp-of-a-renaissance-85711">relentlessly local</a> and offer something different if they want people to pay for their product. </p>
<p>They also need to be more visible, embracing opportunities for real life engagement and consciously <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/11/whites-more-likely-than-nonwhites-to-have-spoken-to-a-local-journalist/">diversifying the range of people they interview</a>.</p>
<p>According to a 2006 study by journalism professors Don Heider, Maxwell McCombs and Paula Poindexter, this means that <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTozHjnf3IGLh6dLC7FRxRvlR50TL5Nq2EBfEDKZU4W4vugqVhL7Yk_WynZrX29F-955ziSTjq9XND8/pubhtml">investigative and watchdog reporting</a> should appear alongside stories that <a href="https://casestudies496d.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/heider1.pdf">demonstrate</a> “caring about your community, highlighting interesting people and groups in the community, understanding the local community, and offering solutions to community problems.” </p>
<p>That way, local journalists <a href="https://www.poynter.org/news/tiny-family-run-newspaper-wins-pulitzer-prize-taking-big-business">act as a check on those in power</a> and create an <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/page/draining_oregon_day_1.html">informed citizenry</a>, while also fostering <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tq3ACQAAQBAJ&pg=PT17&lpg=PT17&dq=how+local+journalism+creates+sense+of+community&source=bl&ots=FTCymItZ0Z&sig=oDiDtKucaYe1NjdlxIxWuFgQHqM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjziuy9qfjWAhUBKGMKHd4VAs0Q6AEIUTAG#v=onepage&q=how%20">a sense of community</a>.</p>
<p>And local journalists don’t just help communities make sense of the world around them. They’re also a proxy for the wider news industry. </p>
<p>It’s harder to believe that everything is “fake news” when the journalist you meet at back-to-school night, your kid’s football practice, or in the local coffee shop is not just your neighbor, but someone who is also reporting on important local stories that you know to be true.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damian Radcliffe continues to engage in freelance creative and consulting work related to his expertise on media and technology matters. He is a member of the Online News Association and has received funding from the Agora Journalism Center and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism to research developments into business models, innovation and civic engagement in local media.</span></em></p>A recent survey found that Americans trust local media outlets far more than national ones.Damian Radcliffe, Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/857112017-10-22T23:39:42Z2017-10-22T23:39:42ZIs local news on the cusp of a renaissance?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190876/original/file-20171018-32361-1kfep1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/morning-paper-674951?src=4NSnJCQ-kmB2K0EVbNaaeA-1-0">Bridget McPherson</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not an easy time to be a journalist in the United States. Since 2000, <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/07/newsonomics-the-halving-of-americas-daily-newsrooms/">nearly half of newsroom jobs</a> – <a href="https://www.poynter.org/news/asne-stops-trying-count-total-job-losses-american-newsrooms">more than 20,000</a> of them – have disappeared.</p>
<p>Rubbing salt into the wounds, CareerCast <a href="http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/worst-jobs-2016">named</a> “newspaper reporter” the worst of 200 jobs in 2016 for the third successive year. (Pest control worker and meter reader came in at 195 and 190, respectively.) And it doesn’t help that the profession now finds itself routinely <a href="http://ew.com/tv/2017/06/27/donald-trump-fake-news-twitter/">targeted and criticized</a> by the White House.</p>
<p>Given this negative backdrop, it’s not surprising that many journalists are driven by a strong <a href="https://www.cjr.org/covering_trump/journalists-trump-media-press-calling-fake.php">sense of vocation</a>. Yet now, more than ever, we rely on journalists to do the things they have always done: <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/editors/index.ssf/2017/10/the_oregonianoregonlives_toxic.html">act as a check on those in power</a>, create an <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/page/draining_oregon_day_1.html">informed citizenry</a> and <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/11/03/civic-engagement-strongly-tied-to-local-news-habits/">encourage civic engagement</a>.</p>
<p>This is particularly true at a local level. Local journalism, the subject of my <a href="http://journalism.uoregon.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Radcliffe-Agora_FINAL-for-web.pdf">new report</a> for the <a href="http://journalism.uoregon.edu/agora/">Agora Journalism Center</a> at the University of Oregon, not only fulfills an important watchdog function, it also plays a pivotal role in helping create – and define – a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tq3ACQAAQBAJ&pg=PT17&lpg=PT17&dq=how+local+journalism+creates+sense+of+community&source=bl&ots=FTCymItZ0Z&sig=oDiDtKucaYe1NjdlxIxWuFgQHqM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjziuy9qfjWAhUBKGMKHd4VAs0Q6AEIUTAG#v=onepage&q=how%20">sense of community</a>.</p>
<p>Telling this story through the eyes of 10 local news outlets in the Pacific Northwest, I found editors and journalists eager to talk about their <a href="https://medium.com/@damianradcliffe/the-revenue-conundrum-72f09be9ea4e">efforts to diversify revenues</a>, <a href="https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/local-journalists-digital-tools-optimism.php">harness new digital platforms</a> and find fresh ways to <a href="https://medium.com/@damianradcliffe/the-rise-of-engagement-online-and-in-real-life-11a0c261a500">engage with audiences</a>. </p>
<p>Their experience serves as a microcosm for <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/02/if-small-newspapers-are-going-to-survive-theyll-have-to-be-more-than-passive-observers-to-the-news/">discussions</a> and <a href="http://us14.campaign-archive1.com/?u=e417ea0aa7f5255fb7fd59b38&id=caae04c421&e=527c173d22">activities</a> taking place in local newsrooms across the country every day. </p>
<h2>What if they were to disappear?</h2>
<p>To understand the importance of local journalism, one need only look at areas where strong local reporting has disappeared. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cjr.org/local_news/american-news-deserts-donuts-local.php">The emergence of media deserts</a> – communities devoid of “fresh” news and information – risks creating an environment where citizens miss important information and public officials are potentially <a href="https://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/_files/pdf%20white%20papers/Tom%20Hogen-Esch.pdf">less accountable</a> than they should be.</p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/bell-calif-city-leaders-arrested-salary-scandal/story?id=11691192">One prominent example</a> of this took place in Bell, California, where a Pulitzer Prize-winning <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/bell/la-me-bell-scandal-a-times-investigation-20160211-storygallery.html">investigation</a> by the LA Times revealed that some of the town’s top officials were paid double or triple the salaries of their counterparts elsewhere. The story triggered a criminal case, which led to jail time for several public officials.</p>
<p>Because “no one was actively looking for corruption or fraud there,” the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/public-integrity/files/bell_report_final_pdf_2.13.15.pdf">concluded</a>, “it took a newspaper investigation to draw law enforcement scrutiny.” </p>
<p>That this investigation was conducted by the LA Times, rather than a local paper, is partly because the city’s paper was no longer around.</p>
<p>“A lot of residents tried to get the media’s attention, but it was impossible,” said Christina Garcia, a local community activist and teacher (reported in the FCC’s mammoth <a href="https://transition.fcc.gov/osp/inc-report/The_Information_Needs_of_Communities.pdf">2011 report on the Information Needs of Communities</a>). “The city of Bell doesn’t even have a local paper; no local media of any sort.”</p>
<p>As local newspapers continue to shutter, and further newsroom jobs are shed, the risk of “more Bells” is very real. </p>
<p>Mark Zusman, editor and publisher of Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon), told me that trends point to “an environment in which the potential for corruption and misdeeds has never been greater, because of the lack of watchdogs on a local level, not on a national or a federal level.”</p>
<h2>Getting creative about revenue</h2>
<p>To do their job, however, journalism <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/15/state-of-the-news-media-2016-key-takeaways/">needs to be on a firmer financial footing</a>. </p>
<p>“You cannot have an artistic success without a financial one,” John Costa, president and publisher of the Bend Bulletin (Oregon), said in an interview for the report. “But the purpose of that business model is to make sure that you’re doing high-quality content because you have to collect readers or viewers in our business to stay vital.”</p>
<p>For all news providers, refining their business and revenue model is arguably their biggest challenge.</p>
<p>As traditional advertising dollars have <a href="https://www.baekdal.com/blog/what-killed-the-newspapers-google-or-facebook-or/">flowed online</a>, they’ve typically migrated to organizations like Google, <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/business/2014/02/how-craigslist-killed-newspapers-golden-goose">Craigslist</a>, Yelp and Facebook, <a href="https://home.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/co/pdf/co-17-01-08-tmt-stop-the-presses.pdf">rather than</a> the digital portfolios of newspaper groups.</p>
<p>The news providers in the Pacific Northwest that I spoke to realize they must find <a href="https://medium.com/the-local-news-lab/new-revenue-for-news-52-ideas-to-support-local-journalism-1ee3720a7897">new revenue streams</a>, and many of them are going about doing just that.</p>
<p>For example, the Register Guard in Eugene (Oregon) has set up a spinoff company, <a href="http://rgmediacompany.com/">R-G Media</a>, to produce websites, apps and digital content for commercial clients. Outlets such as Portland’s Willamette Week and Seattle’s GeekWire are hosting and producing <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/events/">events</a> as a way to engage with their readers and generate money through ticket sales and sponsorships.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, membership programs – historically the preserve of local PBS and NPR stations – may work for other outlets too.</p>
<p>“I think one of the main ingredients of our secret sauce, if you will, is pledge drives,” said Morgan Holm, senior vice president and chief content officer at Oregon Public Broadcasting. “It forces you to articulate on a regular basis to your audience what you do for them and why it’s of value to them.”</p>
<h2>The journalist’s new job</h2>
<p>Pledge drives and events aren’t just potential revenue sources. They’re also a great way to find stories and engage with your community. In an era of “Fake News,” this matters: Journalists need to be more visible and more accountable, showing that they’re listening to their readers.</p>
<p>Caitlyn May, editor of the Cottage Grove Sentinel (Oregon), hosts a weekly, informal, “Meet the Editor” discussion at a local coffee shop. She also appears on a monthly radio show (streamed via Facebook Live) and takes questions from listeners.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, radio stations, such as KUOW Public Radio in Puget Sound (Washington) have been embracing some of the tools created by the news startup <a href="https://www.wearehearken.com/">Hearken</a>, encouraging readers to submit <a href="http://kuow.org/post/there-really-giant-octopus-under-tacoma-narrows-bridge">questions they want answered</a> or suggest topics they want covered.</p>
<p>This represents a shift for many journalists. In the past, many would engage with the community at an arm’s length, lest it appear to <a href="http://niemanreports.org/articles/reporters-relationships-with-sources/">taint their objectivity</a>.</p>
<p>But in the digital age, journalists can – and, indeed, are expected to – interact with audiences, and this doesn’t just mean responding to online comments or engaging with followers on Twitter. Attending events, appearing on <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-facebook-live-means-for-journalism-72233">Facebook Live</a> or producing podcasts are all ways for journalists to break down traditional barriers with readers. </p>
<h2>Being relentlessly local may hold the key</h2>
<p>These types of interactions will be essential if news providers hope to reassert their relevance and build audiences that are willing to pay for their products.</p>
<p>In this regard, local journalists potentially hold several advantages: they intimately know their audience and usually live within the community, characteristics national outlets cannot compete with. </p>
<p>For local outlets, these foundations could offer a path to financially sustainability. </p>
<p>Journalists also need to embrace the fact that the future of journalism cannot – and will not – look like the past. Moving forward will require doing some things differently.</p>
<p>That means being open to new forms of storytelling like video and <a href="https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/eclipse-public-viewing-details-in-augmented-reality/article_54d674bd-1eb9-5190-a7e1-0cd29b8728f7.html">augmented reality</a>, finding new ways to <a href="http://mediashift.org/2016/12/5-ways-engaged-journalism-movement-made-progress-2016/">engage with your audience</a> – online and in the real world – as well as a willingness to embrace concepts such as <a href="https://ijnet.org/en/blog/what-makes-successful-solutions-journalism-story">Solutions Journalism</a>, an <a href="https://www.solutionsjournalism.org/what-is-solutions-journalism/">approach</a> to coverage that journalists haven’t historically embraced: reporting on what’s working as rigorously and relentlessly as what doesn’t. </p>
<p>Although the journalism industry continues to face many challenges, there are causes for optimism. Newsrooms in the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the country are experimenting with new revenue, reporting and engagement strategies. </p>
<p>To get some sense of this, check out the experiments in <a href="https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/check-out-the-winter-wings-parrot-show-in-video/article_10118b04-1958-5f71-818f-42aba8fec12e.html">360 video</a> and <a href="https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/eclipse-public-viewing-details-in-augmented-reality/article_54d674bd-1eb9-5190-a7e1-0cd29b8728f7.html">augmented reality</a> being produced by the Herald and News in Klamath Falls (Oregon), this <a href="http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/education/2017/10/07/disabled-salem-preschooler-walks-race-peers-thanks-unlikely-friendship/683203001/">heartwarming video</a> from the Statesman Journal (Oregon) or the <a href="http://www.columbian.com/news/2016/oct/13/clark-talks-podcast-the-columbian/">podcast</a> of the Columbian (Vancouver, Washington). </p>
<p>There’s no exact recipe for success, but these signs suggest an industry in the process of reinventing and reinvigorating itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85711/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damian Radcliffe continues to engage in freelance creative and consulting work related to his expertise on media and technology matters. He is a member of the Online News Association and has received funding from the Agora Journalism Center and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism to research developments into business models, innovation and civic engagement in local media.</span></em></p>A new study explores the state of an industry that’s tapping creative revenue streams and incorporating new tools to engage with readers.Damian Radcliffe, Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/821202017-09-13T23:22:07Z2017-09-13T23:22:07ZWhen a squirrel dies: The rapid decline of local news<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185745/original/file-20170912-3748-1xgoz3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A recent research project about the 2015 Canadian election showed social media is no substitute for local news coverage.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once, when discussing our changing habits online, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/05/19/online.privacy.pariser/index.html">Mark Zuckerberg told his colleagues</a>, “a squirrel dying in your front yard may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.” </p>
<p>This memorable though insensitive quote suggests that social media platforms are optimized to support local news over international coverage. In other words, the events that are most relevant to people are likely the ones closest to home, rather than those that happen to distant people far away.</p>
<p>Does this assumption hold up to closer scrutiny though? I decided to test this idea, along with fellow communications scholar, <a href="http://rsj.journalism.ryerson.ca/team/april-lindgren/">April Lindgren</a>. We decided to look at the way the 2015 federal elections <a href="http://localnewsresearchproject.ca/publication-list/">were covered on one social media platform</a>: Twitter. What we found may surprise Zuckerberg. It definitely surprised us.</p>
<h2>Local news as important as clean air</h2>
<p>Recent research has revealed the <a href="http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/january-2017/canadas-local-news-poverty/">importance of local news</a> for civic and political participation in Canada and across North America. And the Knight Foundation has noted the <a href="https://www.knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/publication_pdfs/Assessing_Community_Information_Needs_10.6.11.pdf">availability of information “is as vital to communities as is clean air</a>, safe schools, good hospitals and public health.” </p>
<p>Yet, despite the civic benefits to communities in Canada and around the world, the news industry is currently at a crossroads. A recent report by Pew Research shows that <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/01/circulation-and-revenue-fall-for-newspaper-industry/">advertising revenue to the U.S. newspaper industry is declining sharply</a>. </p>
<p>Classified ads, once a cornerstone of the newspaper business model, have become almost obsolete due to sites like Craigslist and Kijiji. Squeezed on both sides — by declining subscribership and declining advertising revenues — local news outlets struggle to make enough money to keep the lights on, let alone make money for shareholders.</p>
<p>Many think social media, and particularly Twitter, which is used frequently by journalists to find and share news, can help bridge this gap. Research has shown that <a href="https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/hicss/2015/7367/00/7367b542.pdf">journalists rely on Twitter as a news source</a> and <a href="http://www.ijis.net/ijis7_1/ijis7_1_newman_et_al.pdf">news often breaks on Twitter before it does on traditional news outlets</a>. But how does Twitter compare to the local news outlets that are on the decline? </p>
<h2>Can Twitter bridge the gap?</h2>
<p>We scraped all available tweets for the month leading up to the 2015 Canadian federal election for the two most popular election-related hashtags: <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23elxn42">#elxn42</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23cdnpoli">#cdnpoli</a>. We used a combination of software and human analysis to examine keywords, influencers and other trends. And then we filtered the data to identify the tweets associated with smaller communities across Canada. </p>
<p>The communities we examined were all different with respect to their geographies, demographics and access to print, radio and television news. We looked at what kind of news coverage was available through Twitter in each community, examining influencers, trends and the quality of coverage.</p>
<p>We found a <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3097325&CFID=978430794&CFTOKEN=89300640">significant difference in locally-relevant news coverage on Twitter</a> compared to the presence of local news in a local daily newspaper. Also, the coverage on Twitter tends to be of varying quality. A large proportion of tweets are partisan in nature and offer opinion rather than facts. </p>
<p>News announcing local events, such as debates or rallies, was widely circulated on Twitter. However, news about actual election related issues or policies was difficult to find or entirely absent. Many links shared on Twitter were to websites set up only for the purposes of influencing the election and did not lead to what might be considered objective news. </p>
<p>Local news did not seem to travel on Twitter and, generally speaking, the election news that was shared did not hold up to the standards of more traditional media outlets.</p>
<h2>Interventions are necessary</h2>
<p>So what can we do? Greater public awareness, media and digital literacy education and government policy interventions are needed in order to ensure that we do not have to rely solely on platforms like Twitter for local news. </p>
<p>It is also clear traditional business models supporting local news no longer work. Reasons for this vary, including the explosive growth of social media platforms for news-sharing. For these reasons we need to consider new ways to support the local journalism that is so vital to Canadian communities. </p>
<p>On the policy front, the government could recognize the public good served by local news outlets. For example, they could make monetary contributions or donations to these organizations tax deductible. </p>
<p>On the education front, college and university level journalism programs could equip students with entrepreneurial skills, in the hopes that future graduates will be able to find new and innovative ways to share news. </p>
<p>Social media sites like Twitter <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-24397472">make money by selling advertising on their feeds</a>. They can monetize this way because people use these sites to share content. A <a href="http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2017/05/30142556/state-of-the-news-media-report-2014-final.pdf">growing proportion of that content is news</a>. Canadians should therefore find ways to hold them accountable for the quality of information being shared there. </p>
<p>Social media sites already <a href="https://socialmediacollective.org/reading-lists/critical-algorithm-studies/">employ algorithms to filter content</a> in ways that serve their advertisers. They should also be responsible for filtering content in ways that best serves local communities.</p>
<p>Social media can be used to highlight locally relevant information but it’s up to all of us to demand that it be used in this way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaigris Hodson receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>Local news is as important to communities as clean air, but the failing business model of traditional journalism has left the local news industry in rapid decline.Jaigris Hodson, Assistant Professor of Digital Research, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/810662017-08-17T01:27:50Z2017-08-17T01:27:50ZHow union stakes in ailing papers like the Chicago Sun-Times may keep them alive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182267/original/file-20170816-28350-5h03cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A pedestrian walks past a Chicago Sun-Times newspaper box.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/M. Spencer Green</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.chicagolabor.org/news/press-releases/newly-formed-group">recent purchase</a> of the Chicago Sun-Times for a nominal US$1 by a consortium of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-backstory-behind-the-unions-that-bought-a-chicago-sun-times-stake-81311">labor-affiliated organizations</a> and individual investors highlights the troubled state of the newspaper industry. </p>
<p>It also raises the question of whether union ownership can bolster the odds that this Windy City daily whose founding dates back to 1929 can survive.</p>
<p>Research <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25067537">conducted by me</a> and <a href="http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1072&context=books">others</a> suggests that, perhaps surprisingly, giving unions a financial stake in a company can offer advantages that would not only benefit Chicago Sun-Times employees but the newspaper and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/business/media/chicago-sun-times-ownership.html?_r=0">wider community</a> as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182261/original/file-20170816-32661-7mwx4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182261/original/file-20170816-32661-7mwx4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182261/original/file-20170816-32661-7mwx4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182261/original/file-20170816-32661-7mwx4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182261/original/file-20170816-32661-7mwx4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182261/original/file-20170816-32661-7mwx4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182261/original/file-20170816-32661-7mwx4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chicago Federation of Labor president Jorge Ramirez, left, and former Chicago Alderman Edwin Eisendrath are now in charge of the Chicago Sun-Times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The state of the industry</h2>
<p>Regardless of who owns it, the Chicago Sun-Times operates in an industry <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100104660">wrenched by a tsunami</a> of economic, technological and social change that has rendered the traditional business model of newspapers obsolete.</p>
<p>Just 20 percent of the U.S. population <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/07/pathways-to-news/">got its news from a print newspaper</a> last year, compared with 27 percent in 2013. Weekday circulation for print dailies <a href="http://www.journalism.org/fact-sheet/newspapers/">dropped to 34.7 million</a> in 2016 – the lowest in at least 77 years – down from 52.3 million a decade earlier. And advertising revenue from both print and digital dailies <a href="http://www.journalism.org/fact-sheet/newspapers/">plunged to $18.3 billion</a> last year from $49.4 billion in 2005.</p>
<p>The Chicago Sun-Times, which <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/sun-times-seeks-new-ownership-and-tronc-wants-to-buy-it/">has won eight Pulitzer Prizes</a> and was the home of legendary film critic Roger Ebert, itself offered vivid testimony of these hardships <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/media/01paper.html">when it declared bankruptcy in 2009</a>. This led to steep bargaining concessions by its employees after <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-statement-closing-its-investigation-possible-acquisition-chicago-sun-times">it was bought</a> by STMG Holdings, the only bidder for the company.</p>
<p>For example, the paper negotiated a 15 percent cut in pay and benefits for newsroom employees who belonged to the NewsGuild union.</p>
<p>These realities highlight the challenges confronting the new Chicago Sun-Times investors, which include the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) union, former Chicago Alderman Edwin Eisendrath and several local labor unions. The head of the CFL is expected to be named chairman, while Eisendrath will be the chief executive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182259/original/file-20170816-32624-1uka781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182259/original/file-20170816-32624-1uka781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182259/original/file-20170816-32624-1uka781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182259/original/file-20170816-32624-1uka781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182259/original/file-20170816-32624-1uka781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182259/original/file-20170816-32624-1uka781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182259/original/file-20170816-32624-1uka781.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man hawks copies of the Chicago Sun-Times in 2009 as the paper went through bankruptcy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Labor and the media</h2>
<p>While labor unions have little experience running major newspapers, they <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/016344300022003003">have a long history of engagement</a> with the media, primarily to serve three explicit objectives:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>to communicate with their members and targeted audiences regarding organizing drives and bargaining campaigns;</p></li>
<li><p>to counter the often heavily business-slanted presentation of news and information through not only print but also radio and television;</p></li>
<li><p>to convey broader messages for economic and social change.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The specific media through which unions have sought to realize these goals have varied. To communicate with members, unions have relied extensively on internal organs, which have morphed beyond print publications to the widespread use of social media. </p>
<p>However, efforts to make their voices heard beyond the rank and file by obtaining or purchasing time in the mainstream media <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/016344300022003003">have at times been thwarted</a> by broadcasters, which tended to adopt a pro-business perspective. </p>
<p>In the 1930s and 1940s, for example, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) adopted a code of ethics that banned the airing of controversial issues, apart from political advertising; the code also forbade soliciting members. The code was operationalized by broadcasters to ban unions from advertising or buying time because they raised “controversial” issues like strikes and lowering the cost of living.</p>
<p>Unions challenged the NAB code, as administered, before the Federal Communications Commission and received some relief in the mid-1940s, but the media remained business-dominated.</p>
<p>In such an environment, unions resorted to establishing their own media enterprises, especially in radio. The Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL), for example, established WCFL-FM in 1926, a noncommercial radio station that promoted the voice of labor. In 1949, the United Auto Workers and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union established radio stations in Detroit, Cleveland, Chattanooga, Los Angeles and New York City.</p>
<p>Unions have faced several major hurdles in their efforts to reach wider audiences through the direct operation of their own media businesses. A key liability is that labor simply lacks the financial wherewithal to operate in any news-related medium on a scale comparable to corporations and business moguls.</p>
<p>In the Chicago Sun-Times’ case, while the acquisition involved a token price of $1, the investment consortium <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2017/chicago-sun-times-sold-to-group-including-unions-former-politician/466606/">had to secure funding</a> of $11.2 million to cover anticipated losses over the next three years.</p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/0019-8676.00065">Research I have conducted on union finances</a> has shown that the aggregated assets and revenues of labor organizations pale in comparison to the financial capacity of large companies in the U.S. Many of the wealthiest people in the world, in fact, each have far more financial capacity at their disposal than all U.S. labor organizations (local, regional and national) combined. </p>
<p>Another major liability is the sheer decline in labor’s presence in the workplace. Today, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">only about 6.4 percent of the private sector workforce</a> is unionized, compared with almost 17 percent in 1983. If membership is a proxy for union support, then union-owned papers and other media have a relatively small audience to tap directly. And this audience is by no means homogeneous in economic, political or ideological outlook.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182327/original/file-20170816-17639-ifac6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182327/original/file-20170816-17639-ifac6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182327/original/file-20170816-17639-ifac6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182327/original/file-20170816-17639-ifac6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182327/original/file-20170816-17639-ifac6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182327/original/file-20170816-17639-ifac6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182327/original/file-20170816-17639-ifac6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UAW President Dennis Williams speaks as, from left, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, United Auto Workers Vice President Cindy Estrada and GM Vice President Cathy Clegg listen. In 2009, the UAW made concessions in exchange for partial ownership of GM and other companies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Paul Sancya</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The difference a union makes</h2>
<p>While that trend is unlikely to change, the union-backed purchase of the Chicago Sun-Times could potentially help turn around its flagging fortunes. To understand how, it’s useful to consider union ownership in other industries.</p>
<p>Notably, the UAW <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100731920">made major economic concessions</a> in 2009 in exchange for partial ownership of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler through Voluntary Employee Beneficial Associations. </p>
<p>Though union ownership of business is not common in our capitalist system, and is often viewed skeptically by labor advocates, there are widespread uses of other forms of shared capitalism, in which employees obtain a stake in the financial performance of the business. Research indicates that <a href="http://www.nber.org/chapters/c8085.pdf">at least one-half</a> of the private sector U.S. workforce is covered by some form of such capitalism, which includes profit-sharing, gain-sharing and employee stock ownership programs.</p>
<p>Numerous studies have concluded that these types of shared capitalism are associated with <a href="http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1072&context=books">more positive employee attitudes</a>, higher levels of productivity and <a href="http://www.nber.org/chapters/c8085.pdf">better financial performance</a>. The impact is amplified if these financial ties are combined with employee involvement, employment security and practices that invest in employees, such as training. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25067537">My research</a> on labor-management partnerships indicates that providing employees, through their union representatives, a bigger voice in the organization and workplace results in less conflict, improved organizational performance and cost savings.</p>
<p>Of course, labor ownership in newspapers won’t resolve all the harsh economic realities newspapers face due to the rapid technological advances that have made the news and other information instantaneously and freely available on multiple platforms.</p>
<p>Still, I believe the deal struck by the Chicago Sun-Times and its new investors provides several avenues for unions to affect the company’s employment practices so as to produce individual, organizational and societal benefits. </p>
<p>The placement of a union official at the helm as chairman is one such good step. It should help set the tone for labor-management relations, providing workers with job security, preventing further wage and benefit concessions and promoting the kind of investment in training and talent that will help it compete in the digital world. </p>
<p>Furthermore, unions may use their ownership position to present perspectives on business and economic affairs that better reflect the interests of the working class. This could potentially broaden the appeal of the newspaper and have broader societal benefits by offering more diverse perspectives. </p>
<p>In short, the stage is set for the union investors to show what they can do. They possess advantages which should be methodically exploited. A stronger union voice arguably promotes both industrial and political democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marick Masters received funding from U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Three Rivers Labor-Management Committee, and Pennsylvania State AFL-CIO. He is a former Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress in 1992 in the 18th congressional district of Pennsylvania. He is also a senior partner in AIM (Albright, Irr, and Masters), a business consulting firm.</span></em></p>Giving labor unions a financial stake in a company such as a newspaper can offer unique advantages that could benefit employees, society and the bottom line.Marick Masters, Professor of Business and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/761122017-05-08T13:38:16Z2017-05-08T13:38:16ZRegional newspapers can thrive again if they go back to their community role<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168390/original/file-20170508-5468-15e9j0c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/62693815@N03/6277209256">Jon S/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Local newspapers are contradictory things. They are dismissed as “rags” and yet their familiar names are are part of the glue which holds communities together. </p>
<p>Just as the derision which can greet these titles can be great, so can the <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/new-research-some-198-uk-local-newspapers-have-closed-since-2005/">impact of their closure</a>. When local papers close, communities <a href="http://www.mediatrust.org/uploads/128255497549240/original.pdf">can be left bereaved</a>, having lost a vital service.</p>
<p>This contradiction between sentiment and utility is often overlooked by those working in or researching local media. Indeed, the national press is given more attention by both academia and industry – despite regional titles dominating in terms of local readers and profits for much of UK newspaper history. </p>
<p>Local titles may draw on their relationship with communities for prestige, but they also rely on advertising from them for their income. The link between these elements is far from clear. In good times it has been a moot point. When, like now, times are bad, <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/how-the-rise-of-online-ads-has-prompted-a-70-per-cent-cut-in-journalist-numbers-at-big-uk-regional-dailies/">cracks begin to show</a>. As resources are stripped out of the business to maintain profits, those functions associated with community benefit, like <a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/analysis/why-newspapers-lack-interest-in-court-reporting-/53266.article">covering courts</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/11/bbc-to-fund-150-local-news-journalists">councils</a>, fall by the wayside.</p>
<h2>Echoes of the past</h2>
<p>Since 2005, some 198 local newspapers have closed in the UK. Others have moved <a href="http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/not-last-post-reading-4239088">online</a>, been <a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2017/news/neighbouring-weeklies-merge-into-single-newspaper/">merged</a>, or are now <a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2015/news/staff-at-two-weeklies-to-be-based-off-patch-after-office-closures/">produced by relocated teams</a>, who are sometimes miles from the location printed on the masthead. </p>
<p>Still, this is not the first time the regional media has experienced such a decline. Similar concerns prompted enquiries from the Royal Commission on the Press <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201415/ldselect/ldcomuni/135/13505.htm">in 1947, 1961 and 1974</a>. </p>
<p>The reports and evidence left by these examinations confirmed that local newspapers were expected to act as a watchdog on behalf of the communities they served. But, just as Canadian businessman Roy Thomson, of Thomson Regional Newspapers (TRN), <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9AHGBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT32&lpg=PT32&dq=roy+thomson+owned+newspapers+to+make+money&source=bl&ots=r_pEMg69lo&sig=7tEo3tBH18slAPwaF9rETJuMwAY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFwN_B_9_TAhWMJ8AKHQ1uBPcQ6AEIQTAF#v=onepage&q=roy%20thomson%20owned%20newspapers%20to%20make%20money&f=false">famously proclaimed</a> that editorial content was “the stuff you separate the ads with” the current corporate model views <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/former-trinity-editor-says-local-press-publishers-see-most-revenue-for-least-effort-as-he-launches-monthly-northants-title/">editorial as a cost</a>. One that is to be controlled alongside production, advertising, distribution and administration. The model gives no special attention to content, and is one in which quality editorial can be sacrificed for cheap words, “<a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/nick-davies-churnalism-has-taken-the-place-of-what-we-should-be-doing-telling-the-truth-40117/">churned out</a>”.</p>
<h2>Local value</h2>
<p>In 1971, TRN’s managing director, John Davis, made a prescient comment about the impact of continual cost cutting on the performance of Cardiff newspapers the Western Mail and South Wales Echo. In his June report that year, held by the National Library of Wales, Davis said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Behind this pursuit for urgently needed profits lies the concern for the long term prosperity of the papers and the fear that by selling over hard, increasing our charges too readily and investing too little in the quality of the product we may be sorting up for ourselves an even greater problem for as little as five years ahead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"847388027601076224"}"></div></p>
<p>More than 50 years on, reductions in people and titles in this sector have been <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/nuj-report-local-press-is-lifeblood-of-democracy-but-418-journalism-jobs-lost-in-last-17-months-alone/">extensively documented</a>, most recently for the NUJ’s <a href="https://www.nuj.org.uk/campaigns/local-news-matters-week/">Local News Matters</a> campaign. Yet, despite the precarious position, service to the community continues to be <a href="https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/community-value-journalism/">the raison d'etre</a> for the vast majority of those who work in the local press. </p>
<p>That local news reporting <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38843461">brings benefits to society</a> is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-case-for-a-business-rates-relief-for-local-newspapers">officially recognised</a>. But the debate on how to reconcile revenue and public need seems to have moved on little from the first enquiry 70 years ago.</p>
<h2>Making community relations pay</h2>
<p>Profit and community benefit are not incompatible. Indeed, by focusing on monopolistic circulation areas at the turn of the 20th century, numerous local newspapers maximised advertising revenues, and cemented themselves in this particular role.</p>
<p>Now, with cost cuts, digital editions and other concerns, it can be just as easy to forget about this community role which local newspapers have made their own – but equally, it needn’t be a choice between revenue or serving a community. </p>
<p>The future of the local newspaper lies in it working in a way which supports its role as watchdog. By investing financially in and articulating clearly that it provides a service to the community, local newspapers can weather <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/regional-press-online-ad-revenue-fell-in-2016-despite-40-per-cent-digital-audience-growth-as-googlefacebook-cashed-in/">any changes</a>. </p>
<p>Equally, however, if these titles want to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/mar/18/at-last-the-government-may-help-local-newspapers-with-tax-breaks">draw on public subsidies</a>, then they should be called to account for their ability to <a href="http://senedd.assembly.wales/documents/s3768/Media4-03-11p5.pdf">walk the walk</a> of serving the community, rather than just talking the talk. </p>
<p>This new generation of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29095428/The_socio-local_newspaper_creating_a_sustainable_future_for_the_legacy_provincial_news_industry_">“socio-local” newspapers</a> would put community benefit on an equal footing with metrics such as circulation. </p>
<p>It is not some distant dream or academic hypothesis: socio-local newspapers are already serving UK communities, and thriving. Titles such as the family-owned <a href="http://www.iwcp.co.uk">Isle of Wight County Press</a> and cooperative run <a href="http://www.whfp.com">West Highland Free Press</a> have written this relationship into their business model, and are working to preserve community values while turning a profit.</p>
<p>The socio-local newspaper model is not a cure for local media’s problems, but it helps start the conversation about how the value of local media is quantified, and what titles which benefit communities might look like. </p>
<p>If these newspapers are to have a sustainable future, they need to be rescued from the tug of love battle between profit and community which has beset them for 70 years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76112/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Matthews worked in the regional newspaper industry for 15 years. Her book, The History of the Provincial Press in England is published this year. The Socio-local Newspaper, a fuller version of this argument, will be published in Sustainable Journalism by Peter Lang Publishing in 2017.</span></em></p>UK newspapers have been fighting between economics and editorial for 70 years.Rachel Matthews, Principal Lecture in Journalism, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/695452016-11-30T03:04:19Z2016-11-30T03:04:19ZExperts’ roundtable: The future of journalism in Trump’s America<p><em>During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump wasn’t shy about his hostility toward journalists. His unexpected victory proved his doubters – which included many in the media – wrong.</em></p>
<p><em>We’ve gathered a group of media experts to explore the challenges facing journalists and the public under a Trump administration: restoring trust, sifting through propaganda, resisting being manipulated, reviving local news outlets and parsing fake news.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Resisting a master media manipulator</h2>
<p><strong>Gerry Lanosga, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Indiana University</strong></p>
<p>When historians look back on Donald Trump’s unexpected political rise, <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/a-media-savvy-celeb-trump-knows-how-to-get-coverage-journalists-say">his mastery of media manipulation</a> will undoubtedly be one of the key factors they consider.</p>
<p>During a campaign that <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/03/10/donald-trump-versus-the-media/81602878/">made journalists a constant target</a> of his anti-establishment rhetoric, Trump was also able to capture <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html?_r=0">a disproportionate share of media attention</a> by making outrageous, unpredictable statements. </p>
<p>Remarkable as it was, this was not entirely uncharted territory. Trump is hardly the first politician to attack the press (<a href="http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14032">Thomas Jefferson once claimed</a> newspapers “raven on the agonies of their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb”). And his tactic of cutting out the media middleman by using direct-to-audience messaging through Twitter? That, too, has precursors, from <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-gives-first-fireside-chat">FDR’s fireside chats</a> to Harry Truman’s <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/TruWhisTour/ld_2.htm">whistle-stop tour</a>, an echo of similar 19th-century campaigns. </p>
<p>More broadly, presidents have always tried to influence the news media for political ends. “News management” is a relatively recent term, but the <a href="http://vision-press.com/products/the-age-of-mass-communication-2nd-edition">idea goes back at least as far as Andrew Jackson</a>, whose publicity machine churned out news releases and choreographed press events.</p>
<p>Trump’s unique contribution to all this is his showman’s instinct for creating news diversions that tend to draw attention away from his opponents or from more damaging stories. For example, Politico’s Jack Shafer <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/stop-being-trumps-twitter-fool-214470">pointed out</a> that the media uproar from Trump’s attack on the cast of “Hamilton” booted the Trump University lawsuit settlement right out of the news cycle.</p>
<p>Journalists will need vigilance and discipline to resist such manipulation. Those things haven’t always been hallmarks of the White House press corps, which is <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/congrats-white-house-press-corps-you-didnt-ask-a-single-question-about-duck-dynasty/">often criticized</a> as timid, pack-oriented and overly chummy with official Washington. </p>
<p>Such criticisms are reflected in <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx">declining public trust in news media</a>. At the same time, recent surveys have shown that Americans <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/18/news-media-interpretation-vs-facts/">place high value on fact-checking</a> and <a href="http://ire.org/events-and-training/online-training/webinars/can-investigative-journalism-save-your-newsroom/">investigative reporting</a>. </p>
<p>But providing those things is challenging given today’s reactionary news environment and the realities of the <a href="http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=4879">shrinking ranks of journalists covering the federal government</a>. </p>
<p>Trump’s White House is sure to provide plenty of fascination for reporters, making it too easy for them to devote their time to his pronouncements or latest Twitter dust-up. Meanwhile, the shiny object at the top may distract from important news happening in lower precincts, namely the dozens of executive branch agencies that are key players on federal policy and trillions in spending.</p>
<p>With the incoming administration <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/trump-government.html">promising to dramatically reshape federal government</a>, the duty to provide vigorous accountability reporting has never been more important.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Can transparency bridge the political divide?</h2>
<p><strong>Glenn Scott, Associate Professor of Communication, Elon University</strong></p>
<p>Back when I began covering news as a daily reporter, I knew that my varied readers would draw their own conclusions from the stories I filed. But I also knew that those folks depended on my work and largely accepted it as true. </p>
<p>Today, a wider, meaner and more partisan flow of ideas feeds public perceptions. Readers are more suspicious and willing to question the motives of the mainstream news media. Perhaps no one has stoked these suspicions more ostentatiously than President-elect Donald Trump, who has loudly discredited journalists who have criticized him. </p>
<p>But even before Trump’s win, the Pew Research Center pointed out that <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2016/10/14/in-presidential-contest-voters-say-basic-facts-not-just-policies-are-in-dispute/">political news consumers could not even agree on “basic facts.”</a> President Obama, remarking about the distortions and lies that characterized the campaigns, <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/obama-new-media-has-created-a-world-where-everything-is-true-and-nothing-is-true/?utm_source=Daily+Lab+email+list&utm_campaign=dab90c35fb-dailylabemail3&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d68264fd5e-dab90c35fb-395855773">lamented recently</a> that it’s hard to have serious debates and public discussions when the media has created an environment where “everything is true and nothing is true.”</p>
<p>For more than 30 years, scholars have been studying something called “<a href="https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/%7Ejpiliavi/965/hwang.pdf">the hostile media phenomenon</a>” – the tendency of people with highly partisan views to perceive neutral coverage of their issue as unfair. To them, any coverage that doesn’t align with their deeply held convictions is dangerous.</p>
<p>The extent of this hostility leaves news media professionals with choices: They can ride this partisan shockwave, <a href="http://harvardpolitics.com/covers/organized-polarize-cnn-fox-news-msnbc-roots-partisan-cable-television/">appealing to a fairly stable and perhaps profitable audience of believers</a>. Or they can try to overcome the anger and distrust with practices that reformers have been encouraging long before the bruising presidential campaigns. </p>
<p>That first choice, according to innovating editor Alex Stonehill, is like grabbing low-hanging fruit. </p>
<p>Stonehill, the cofounder of a daily news site in Seattle, argues for steps to embrace the full community, such as to “meet audiences where they are,” to listen without judgment and to be open to all voices. In his cosmopolitan community, the local site’s name points to its purpose: <a href="https://www.seattleglobalist.com/">The Seattle Globalist</a>. </p>
<p>On a national level, editors will also need to overcome the effects of media hostility. A few years ago, former newspaper editor Melanie Sill called for a revised approach to reporting – <a href="https://www.ojr.org/my-national-press-club-talk-on-the-case-for-open-journalism-now/">“open journalism”</a> – with an emphasis on service, transparency, accountability and responsiveness. These aren’t new notions. But as Sill noted as she bundled them into one term, newsrooms often haven’t innovated like they could. </p>
<p>Transparency is key. Just as in academia, the wise way to build trust is to show the routes we take to gather and weigh information. Journalists are doing this more now, as calls for it have increased. A nice example is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/insider/the-time-i-found-donald-trumps-tax-records-in-my-mailbox.html">Susanne Craig’s report in The New York Times</a> detailing the discovery of Trump’s 1995 tax records that showed a US$915 million loss. It’s hard to dub The Times a liar after that. Journalist Craig Silverman <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/strategy-studies/transparency-credibility/">wrote a lengthy piece</a> on best practices for transparent reporting for the American Press Institute in 2014. Silverman is adept at revealing truths – and lies. He has been <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman?language=en">the Buzzfeed correspondent</a> breaking stories about fake journalism sites on Facebook. </p>
<hr>
<h2>An environment ripe for propaganda?</h2>
<p><strong>Jennifer Glover Konfrst, Assistant Professor of Public Relations, Drake University</strong></p>
<p>The role of media as gatekeeper is critical in a democracy, and Americans expect them to call out propaganda when they see it. In a recent poll, <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/07/trust-and-accuracy/">75 percent of respondents</a> said they believed that news organizations should keep political leaders from doing things that shouldn’t be done. </p>
<p>Propaganda thrives when the “watchdog” role of journalists is restricted. While not all efforts to circumvent the media result in propaganda, the vacuum created can cause suspicion and mistrust. Propaganda is easier to perpetuate when you shut out the media. </p>
<p>During the second term of the Obama administration, reporters and editors criticized the White House practice of closing events to the press, followed by the distribution of official White House photos to news organizations. In a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/opinion/obamas-orwellian-image-control.html?_r=2&">2013 New York Times op-ed</a>, the Associated Press’ photography director slammed the practice. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Unless the White House revisits its draconian restriction on photojournalists’ access to the president, information-savvy citizens, too, would be wise to treat those handout photos for what they are: propaganda.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this aspect, the communication strategies of the nascent Trump administration don’t look promising. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/11/16/trump-ditches-reporters-goes-dinner-whca-calls-unacceptable/93952790/">When Trump bucked tradition</a> by ditching his pool of reporters to go to dinner, he signaled his continued desire to act on his own terms, without regard for the role of a free press. This is concerning, particularly from a person whose campaign claims were rated “mostly false,” “false” or “pants on fire” <a href="http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/">70 percent of the time</a>. </p>
<p>Also troubling is the fact that Steve Bannon – former executive chair of Breitbart News – has the president-elect’s ear. Breitbart articles frequently promote the views of the so-called “alt-right,” and former editor-at-large Ben Shapiro <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/17/trump_campaign_hires_breitbart_chief_stephen_bannon.html">lamented</a> how the site had turned into “Trump’s personal Pravda.” While Bannon resigned from Breitbart to become Trump’s campaign CEO, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/11/09/steve-bannon-speaks-breitbart-forgotten-men-women-backbone-country-risen/">he’s called the traditional press</a> “smug” and “elitist.” With that kind of vitriol toward media, Bannon will likely advise Trump to err on the side of restricted access.</p>
<p>Fundamentally, our nation functions best when citizens have access to a free flow of information that can adequately check the policies and pronouncements political leaders. If the public is shut out, misled or told to distrust mainstream sources, propaganda spreads. Then we don’t know what to believe. </p>
<hr>
<h2>A renewed focus on local journalism</h2>
<p><strong>Damian Radcliffe, Professor of Journalism, University of Oregon</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/06/15/state-of-the-news-media-2016/">According to the Pew Research Center</a>, 20,000 jobs have disappeared in newsrooms over the past 20 years, many at the local level. <a href="https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2016/10/in-slashing-a-newsroom-gannett-drives-a-stake-in-a-communitys-heart/">The loss of local newspapers</a> created <a href="https://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com">media deserts</a>: communities starved of original reporting and journalism.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.politico.com/media/story/2016/06/study-newspaper-industry-in-2015-had-worst-year-since-the-recession-004603">the industry economics remain challenging</a>, the need for local journalism <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Local%20Journalism%20-%20the%20decline%20of%20newspapers%20and%20the%20rise%20of%20digital%20media_0.pdf">is more important than ever</a>. Local outlets play a vital role in defining and informing communities. They can be the <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-ambush/2016/07/07/hundreds-expected-downtown-dallas-rally-following-shooting-deaths-alton-sterling-philando-castile">first</a> port of call for stories of national significance. They also help communities understand how national developments, whether they’re changes in <a href="http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20161112/trump-win-wont-bring-coal-rebound-could-block-climate-progress">economic</a> or <a href="http://www.civilbeat.org/2016/11/what-does-a-trump-presidency-mean-for-hawaiis-environment/">environmental</a> policy, apply to them.</p>
<p>Fewer boots on the ground has created information voids <a href="https://www.poynter.org/2012/fear-undermines-an-informed-citizenry-as-media-struggles-with-attention-economy/192509/">that have been replaced</a> by cable news, talk radio, social networks and news websites with questionable values or goals. </p>
<p>This creates a disconnect that needs to be addressed. A strong local media needs to be representative – demographically and culturally – of the communities being covered. Yet <a href="https://news.indiana.edu/releases/iu/2014/05/american-journalist-in-the-digital-age.shtml">a 2013 study</a> found that over 90 percent of full-time journalists are college graduates. Just 7 percent identify as Republicans, around one-third are women, and minorities account for only 8.5 percent of the journalistic workforce (while making up 36.6 percent of the population).</p>
<p>The good news is there are signs of reinvention and reinvigoration in local journalism. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://solutionsjournalism.org/">Solutions Journalism Network</a>, the “audience-first” news start-up <a href="https://www.wearehearken.com/">Hearken</a> and University of Texas’ <a href="https://engagingnewsproject.org/">Engaging News Project</a> are encouraging community engagement. They’ve made practical recommendations, from shifts in what is being reported to the way reporters present stories.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the ease of online publishing has helped engender <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/rieder/2013/08/20/small-independent-hyperlocal-news-websites/2676515/">an emerging hyperlocal scene</a>. In a 2011 study on the information needs of communities, <a href="https://transition.fcc.gov/osp/inc-report/The_Information_Needs_of_Communities.pdf">the FCC acknowledged</a> that “even in the fattest-and-happiest days of traditional media, they could not regularly provide news on such a granular level.”</p>
<p>Still, these efforts are patchy and inconsistent. In an era of divisive post-truth politics, we need bold (well-funded) local journalism to speak truth to power, <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/programs/saguaro/about-social-capital">build social capital</a> and, in the process, instill a sense of pride in place.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Navigating the fake news landscape</h2>
<p><strong>Frank Waddell, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Florida</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/11/17/report-fake-election-news-performed-better-than-real-news-facebook/94028370/">After the proliferation of fake news during the 2016 election cycle</a>, the journalism field has come to a grim realization: Accuracy is no longer necessary for news to reach a broad audience. This is particularly problematic on social media, where traditional journalistic functions such as gatekeeping aren’t necessary. </p>
<p>For journalists hoping to cope with the deluge of fake news, the first step is to understand why fake news stories are so successful. One reason is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23808985.1986.11678616?journalCode=rica20">our default instinct to believe what we have been told</a>, a phenomenon that psychologists have coined “truth bias.” We are also <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1992-98649-000">easily persuaded by the opinions of others</a>, so the likes, comments and shares of those in our social networks can affirm the validity of fake news stories. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, when we’re overwhelmed with information, <a href="http://www.marketingsociale.net/download/modello_MAIN.pdf">we’re more likely to take mental shortcuts like truth bias</a>. The average social media user often must sift through hundreds of news stories on Facebook or Twitter. When deciding whether to click the “share” button, it’s simply easier for readers to trust their gut and go along with the crowd than to carefully consider the veracity of the news story in question.</p>
<p>With these obstacles to accuracy in mind, what can legacy media do? The burden falls on journalists and social media platforms. </p>
<p>News outlets can educate the public in media literacy, debunking viral fake news along the way. Social media sites like Facebook must also do their part, not just by banning the most popular fake news sources, but also through offering their users with easy-to-process cues (like implementing a “verified news” tag) to indicate when news has been posted by a reliable and established source. </p>
<p>It may be our tendency to believe what we read, but that doesn’t mean our natural instincts can’t be reversed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damian Radcliffe has received funding from the Agora Journalism Center and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism to research innovation and civic engagement in local media and the state of small market newspapers in the digital world.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Glover Konfrst is a registered Democrat. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Waddell, Gerry Lanosga, and Glenn Scott do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How can journalists resist a master media manipulator, reach local communities and sift through fake news and propaganda? Media experts explore the challenges of covering the next administration.Gerry Lanosga, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Indiana UniversityDamian Radcliffe, Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of OregonFrank Waddell, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of FloridaGlenn Scott, Associate Professor of Communication, Elon UniversityJennifer Glover Konfrst, Assistant Professor of Public Relations, Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/636042016-08-05T15:47:15Z2016-08-05T15:47:15ZCan independent community-based news save local journalism?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133255/original/image-20160805-513-13ton1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Community journalists are putting local news back on the agenda.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The debate over the changing state of the UK’s local media has been ignited once more, after a journalist left his job over <a href="http://bit.ly/2aogSd9">frustration with changing content practices</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sub-scribe.co.uk/2016/08/gareth-davies-why-trinity-mirror-model.html">anger of Gareth Davies</a>, a former reporter for the Trinity Mirror-owned Croydon Advertiser newspaper, was sparked by the inclusion of two separate (and non-local) web-style “listicle” articles on consecutive pages of his former publication. </p>
<p>Davies is not alone in his exasperation: <a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2016/news/chief-reporter-warns-journalists-in-danger-of-becoming-burger-experts/">like others in the trade</a>, his anger arose out of his former employers seemingly chasing clicks at the expense of what he sees as quality news in the public interest.</p>
<p>For their part, Trinity Mirror have <a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2016/news/local-journalism-probably-beyond-saving-says-twitter-storm-journalist/">denied the claims</a> and defended their digital strategy. Senior staff have said that “the more people who see a story locally, the greater chance we have of <a href="https://davidhiggerson.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/the-power-of-1000-page-views/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">convincing local advertisers</a> to jump on board”, and, that “journalists have to think like their audience, cover the questions and concerns they are likely to have and present stories in a way that <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/trinity-mirror-boss-hits-back-at-claims-croydon-advertiser-printing-clickbait-says-days-when-reporters-wrote-about-interests-were-over/">makes them want to read it</a>”. </p>
<p>Huge companies like Trinity Media own most of the UK’s local newspapers and websites that communities rely on for local news, making the practices Davies disapproves of a new norm. But could the declining local news market survive without corporate ownership? Davies <a href="http://www.sub-scribe.co.uk/2016/08/click-clique-dont-understand-what-local.html">and others</a> suggest that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/sep/25/co-op-local-newspapers-journalism">hyperlocal media co-operatives</a> offer a possible “hint” of what can be achieved.</p>
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<p>The idea that community or hyperlocal journalism could fill the vacuum left by a struggling traditional local news industry has been mooted before – but is it realistic?</p>
<h2>News black holes</h2>
<p>Like many other UK towns, Port Talbot in south Wales recently <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/spate-of-newspaper-closures-further-blow-to-welsh-media/">lost its weekly newspaper</a>, and now news and information is provided by the Port Talbot Magnet – a quarterly newspaper and website run by a part-time mix of volunteers and paid freelance journalists – and the South Wales Evening Post, based ten miles away in Swansea. The latter maintains a Port Talbot edition with some bespoke articles from the whole Neath Port Talbot county area, staffed by just two dedicated reporters.</p>
<p><a href="http://orca.cf.ac.uk/87313/1/2016howellsrphd.pdf">Research found</a> that between 1970 and 2015 there was a <a href="https://www.communityjournalism.co.uk/research/journey-to-the-centre-of-a-news-black-hole/">90% drop in journalists</a> covering Port Talbot, coupled with “process changes” such as reporters only leaving the office by express permission, with increasing reliance on managed news sources and press releases. </p>
<p>The rise of DIY hyperlocal news means many hundreds of volunteers and smaller independent news companies now also cover the minutae of local life. They often produce news that plays roles traditionally associated with the retreating traditional local journalism: they cover local politics, hold local elites to account, represent community life, and publicise local campaigns. They often embed themselves in community life in ways many established local journalists no longer can, and their dedication means that local audiences too small to be commercially profitable are given a dedicated news service.</p>
<p>Though it’s likely that this unprecedented level of citizen participation in news will continue well into the future, its overwhelming reliance on volunteers makes it a precarious practice. Community news sites are often very different from local news organisations in that they lack the institutional clout of a local newspaper, with its authority, budgets and support mechanisms. Then there’s the numbers game: the many thousands of <a href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/CMCP/local-news.pdf">professional journalists lost to the local news sector</a> in the last 15 years dwarfs the relatively <a href="http://daveharte.com/research/hyperlocal-news-websites-some-2014-stats/">modest numbers</a> of community news producers who have emerged. </p>
<h2>Sustaining local news</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.communityjournalism.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/C4CJ-Report-for-Screen.pdf">2015 overview of UK community journalism</a> found that the few community news organisations which aim to generate revenues are taking different paths in order to do so, such as forming reader-owned <a href="https://storify.com/C4CJ/mediacoops">media-co-operatives</a>. These co-ops democratise local media by allowing community co-owners to set policy and influence editorial direction. They also provide a continuous, crowdsourced, stream of revenue to supplement others such as local advertising. It is still early days, but they are growing, becoming more embedded in communities, and beginning to pay contributors for their work.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/new-research-maps-550-independent-ultralocal-news-websites-uk/">Other community news publishers</a> have already begun to employ full-time, salaried staff, sustained by mixed funding models: combining online and printed advertising, sponsored advertorials, membership, crowdfunding, and more.</p>
<p>The true value of hyperlocal news cannot be put into purely financial terms but their current success is a strong hint that these models will continue looking forward. The community news sector is beginning to fill some of the the gaps left by the diminished local newspaper industry – whether it can replace it entirely is another question.</p>
<p><em>A longer version of this article is available on the <a href="https://www.communityjournalism.co.uk/blog/2016/08/05/can-independent-community-based-news-save-local-journalism/">Centre for Community Journalism</a> website.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Williams has received funding to research hyperlocal news from the Arts and Humanities Research Council on the Media, Community and the Creative Citizen project, which was part of its Connected Communities programme. He is affiliated with Cardiff University's Centre for Community Journalism, which aims to research, support, and foster community and hyperlocal news in the UK. </span></em></p>Volunteers are picking up where local media has abandoned UK towns.Andy Williams, Lecturer (teaching and research), Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/583222016-04-25T11:54:16Z2016-04-25T11:54:16ZDepleted local media threatens ability to hold those in power to account<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119906/original/image-20160422-17390-kvsmys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C1%2C991%2C766&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Closed shop.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gertcha/4232842935/in/photolist-7s3qJB-cPzEP9-bB3Y9D-8zaBE7-4kNmd-6rxBdW-boFR4y-3oSpja-b5tepv-CvBiYQ-fNC7ZW-bnoGv5-doiuzD-fVXAc2-o1VZBd-abohZM-ceXuU1-4GUTd5-fr6H5b-4ycGUv-bnoDVU-oqWJP-6ZXGW8-2hYFZ-9DJ2Wc-3Ps2r-bnoH5d-85foxR-fqRrmr-fqRrLH-7PLLnT-mcdVZ-ndBeTN-fnSPiF-e7sR4B-dj1r2F-rfRAuM-66yTSo-79Gsse-df8kdG-5ZP465-rgbo5m-fr6HNG-fqRrU6-GaBKm-fAhqt-fr6Hbo-3DTp5-2ycTPP-3Jkm5">Stuart Chalmers</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As voters go to the polls in the UK local elections on May 5, few will be aware how influenced they are by a depleted local news agenda. In many areas where local seats are being contested, local newspaper coverage is limited to a single publisher – sometimes a single newspaper. Most areas are no longer covered by a daily newspaper, and the online output of weekly titles is limited by reductions in the number of editorial staff. </p>
<p>In our new study, <a href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/CMCP/local-news.pdf">Monopolising Local News</a>, we examined the increasing dominance of local news by four publishers, and its democratic implications. The findings show how strong publishing monopolies may be emerging in local news, leading to a dearth of plurality in many UK regions. </p>
<p>The study shows that the growing concentration of ownership in local newspapers, coupled with increasing cuts to editorial staff, is creating large areas in the UK where the public has a very limited choice of local news sources, and diminishing access to original local public interest journalism – as in Port Talbot, where the Port Talbot Guardian closed down in 2009. </p>
<p>These findings suggest that the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldcomm/120/120.pdf">existing plurality framework</a> is neither promoting nor protecting diversity of news ownership in many local areas across the UK. They also raise questions about the effectiveness and suitability of potential interventions, such as the BBC’s proposal <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/21/johnston-press-bbc-local-reporting-ashley-highfield">to support reporting of local authorities</a>. </p>
<h2>Media monopolies</h2>
<p>To understand the state of our local press, we used newspaper industry data to map the daily and weekly local newspapers covering each local authority district and parliamentary constituency. Our <a href="http://localnewsmapping.uk">interactive map</a> shows the provision, ownership and diversity of local UK newspapers. We then layered on existing data about local TV and online news services, to see the extent to which the decline in provision of local newspapers is, or is not, being replaced by new types of news provision.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119905/original/image-20160422-17417-15tdggr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119905/original/image-20160422-17417-15tdggr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119905/original/image-20160422-17417-15tdggr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119905/original/image-20160422-17417-15tdggr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119905/original/image-20160422-17417-15tdggr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119905/original/image-20160422-17417-15tdggr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119905/original/image-20160422-17417-15tdggr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just the one.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-121722856/stock-photo-stack-of-newspapers.html?src=3XsO0KctNofeNXMnYAUH5A-1-0">Papers by Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We discovered that many local area districts and parliamentary constituencies now rely on a single publisher for their news. In 165 of 380 (43%) local authority districts in England, Scotland and Wales, a single commercial publisher has a monopoly of print circulation. In 69% of these districts in England, Scotland and Wales a single publisher controls over 70% of newspaper circulation. Similarly, over half of parliamentary constituencies (330 of 650) are not served by a dedicated daily local newspaper.</p>
<p>Four publishers – Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press, Newsquest and Tindle – now own 73% of all local newspaper titles. Three of these four publishers have reported significant reductions in staff, including editorial staff, over the last five years. This concentration of ownership and decline in the number of editorial staff has led some <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2014.943930">to argue that</a> there may be a democratic deficit emerging at a local level, whereby councils and courts go unreported and the public must rely on social media and word of mouth for their news. </p>
<p>As Rona Fairhead, chair of the BBC Trust, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/speeches/2015/local_news_reporting">said in October 2015</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some local council meetings are going unreported. Some court reporting is starting to fall by the wayside … as a result, the media’s ability to hold to account those who wield power in local communities may be starting to decay. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Trinity Mirror Chief Executive Simon Fox <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/trinity-mirror-chief-says-there-isnt-democratic-deficit-local-news-and-he-doesnt-want-more-bbc">rejected Fairhead’s comments</a>, recent evidence has found that, in certain areas of the UK, there has been a significant decline in attendance of council or public meetings by reporters. </p>
<h2>A democratic deficit?</h2>
<p>This prevents the press from performing its role as “scarecrow”, holding authorities to account for their mistakes and failures and exposing or forestalling corruption. Moreover, the absence of a consistent public voice <a href="http://orca.cf.ac.uk/87313/">has been found</a> to lead to feelings of anger, frustration and despondency among local residents.</p>
<p>So far, it seems we don’t have the right policies in place to address this issue. For example, in the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/40/contents">Enterprise Act (2002)</a> we do not have a clear definition of what is meant by “sufficient plurality”, in terms of local news and information – despite this being the basis on which decisions are supposed to be made on mergers and acquisitions of local media. </p>
<p>The millions of pounds worth of subsidies that go to local media – through statutory notices and via VAT zero-rating, for instance – are not targeted at promoting plurality, diversity or addressing a potential democratic deficit. At the same time, there is only a limited amount of research and information available about the provision of local public interest news, which makes it difficult to create policy based on evidence.</p>
<p>Our study aims to help address the lack of evidence, and in so doing prompt consideration of how policy needs to change if, as a society, we want the public to be informed about local courts, local authorities, and local elections – a question that seems particularly relevant given the forthcoming local elections on May 5.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above. This article does not reflect the views of the research councils. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Neil Ramsay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above. This article does not reflect the views of the research councils. </span></em></p>Local reporting matters – but it’s falling through the cracks.Martin Moore, Senior Research Fellow, King's College LondonGordon Neil Ramsay, Research fellow, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509032016-03-02T04:34:21Z2016-03-02T04:34:21ZRegions at the pointy end of media reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113489/original/image-20160302-25908-o0vdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rural and regional Australians deserve more than tokenistic media coverage of their regions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Tracey Nearmy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Media reform is finally <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-changes-to-australias-media-ownership-laws-are-being-proposed-55509">on its way</a>. It’s a chance for Australia to move on from archaic laws drafted <a href="http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2016/03/01/fifield-details-media-reform-legislation.html">“in an analogue world”</a> to create a media monopoly board that is set for the digital era.</p>
<p>Some of the biggest winners from the <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/television/media/updating-australias-media-laws">government’s announcement</a> are commercial regional broadcasters. For months they have run a well-oiled and orchestrated <a href="http://www.saveourvoices.com.au">Save Our Voices</a> campaign. </p>
<h2>Who stands to gain?</h2>
<p>The broadcasters have argued that current media ownership laws are bleeding them dry, as they are forced to pay for TV content that competitors are already streaming online. They claim their role as champions of local voices is being diminished as a result and that – without change – regional news is under threat.</p>
<p>Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner can spot a good bush tale when he sees one. This week, he argued media reform fed the <a href="http://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/docs/default-source/business-unit-news/media-reforms-worner-statement.pdf?sfvrsn=2">“deal junkies”</a> who stand to feather their own nests now the government plans to scrap the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-changes-to-australias-media-ownership-laws-are-being-proposed-55509">reach rule and two-out-of-three rule</a>. This will pave the way for mergers and acquisitions. </p>
<p>There <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/dream-deals-a-threeway-merger-between-fairfax-media-nine-entertainment-co-and-southern-cross-media-20151224-glul88">is talk</a> that Fairfax Media, which owns hundreds of regional newspapers across Australia, might align with the Nine Entertainment. It has also been speculated that Nine is <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/dream-deals-a-threeway-merger-between-fairfax-media-nine-entertainment-co-and-southern-cross-media-20151224-glul88">considering a merger</a> with regional broadcaster WIN TV. </p>
<p>It’s easy to see how a few simple moves on the monopoly board can reduce the diversity of who gathers news for regional Australians. If local WIN news bulletins begin citing the front page of the local Fairfax paper then the sources and originality of stories become serious concerns.</p>
<p>The Turnbull government seems convinced that local news has a bright future. Extra local content obligations will be imposed on regional television networks if they are acquired by, or seek a merger with, another company. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield argued:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is good news for the media industry, for consumers and particularly good news for regional consumers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But, like Worner, we beg to differ. </p>
<p>The Nationals believe the points system that governs local content is the saving grace in this reform package. The government’s proposed changes will increase the required amount of local content points from 720 to 900 following a <a href="http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/mitch_fifield/news/local_content_safeguards_a_feature_of_media_reform_package#.VtZgxVaZb1p">“trigger event”</a> – a change in control of a regional commercial television licence that results in it being part of a group where the audience under a combined licence area exceeds 75% of the population.</p>
<p>While there has been much talk about the points system, there is little public discussion of what it actually does and how “local content” is determined.</p>
<h2>Putting the points system on the map</h2>
<p>To meet licensing conditions with the Australian Communication Media Authority (ACMA), broadcasters have to earn a minimum of 720 points for “locally significant” content over a six-week period. But since 2014, broadcasters have not been obligated to <a href="http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/compliance-results">report on their compliance</a>. </p>
<p>The points system is based on how often broadcasters report stories relating to “local” areas as defined by a <a href="http://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Broadcast/Television/Local--regional-content/additional-licence-conditions-maps-local-regional-content-i-acma">series of maps</a> ACMA generated in 2007. </p>
<p>Dozens of towns and cities are grouped into a designated “local” area in the state; Western Australia and the Northern Territory are excluded from the points system. The towns and cities are often hundreds of kilometres apart and each can represent up to seven local government areas. For example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>In Victoria, residents in Portland in Victoria’s far west are in the same “local” area as those in the Wimmera, Ballarat and Colac.</p></li>
<li><p>In regional north Queensland, Clermont is in the same zone as Airlie Beach – almost five hours’ drive away.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Give a regional broadcaster an inch and they have taken – and will continue to take – a country mile, especially if they merge with larger players. The idea that licensees might consider and provide news for “smaller” local areas within a licence area is a pipedream. </p>
<p>Mergers lead to centralised resources. This means more and more news gaps are created as journalism is practised from further afield by one company across multiple platforms. </p>
<p>ACMA’s points system is based on <a href="http://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Broadcast/Television/Local--regional-content/material-of-local-significance-local-regional-tv-content-i-acma">locally significant news</a> – that is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… material that deals with people, organisations, events or issues that are of particular interest to people in the area;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>or:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… material about a sporting event that involves a person or team from a nearby area, whose principal support base includes the area or a significant part of the area. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before media reform becomes a runaway train, we need to return to the drawing board and rethink the maps that define and guide broadcasters on reporting news for “local areas”.</p>
<p>Perhaps a gridded system could be beneficial, where broadcasters gain bonus points for covering towns and cities at a considerable distance from the “centre” and ensure they regularly represent all corners of the grid – not just sensational news when it occurs in the backblocks, but the full range of stories that affect and matter to local people. </p>
<p>The very idea of “local” is inherently tied to the way people connect with and consider themselves part of a physical place, often synonymous with areas like neighbourhoods, suburbs, towns and small cities. But the boundaries are never clearly defined and can be interpreted differently depending on our place in the world. </p>
<p>Regional TV networks benefit from drawing and defining local areas on policymakers’ maps. But, this is not often scrutinised.</p>
<p>In light of their Save Our Voices campaign, regional broadcasters have an obligation to represent local communities in the way their glossy promotional website advocates. As they say, rural and regional Australians deserve more than tokenistic media coverage of their regions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113345/original/image-20160301-4063-1lzv1m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113345/original/image-20160301-4063-1lzv1m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=3175&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113345/original/image-20160301-4063-1lzv1m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=3175&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113345/original/image-20160301-4063-1lzv1m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=3175&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113345/original/image-20160301-4063-1lzv1m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=3990&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113345/original/image-20160301-4063-1lzv1m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=3990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113345/original/image-20160301-4063-1lzv1m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=3990&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50903/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Before media reform becomes a runaway train, we need to return to the drawing board and rethink the maps that define and guide broadcasters on reporting news for “local areas”.Kristy Hess, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Deakin UniversityLisa Waller, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.