"Between September 2022 and January 2023, the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) worked with local communities in Bangor, Bristol, Folkestone, Glasgow, Manchester and Newry, to create ‘Local News Plans’ for their areas. We facilitated discussions between local stakeholders, including news providers, businesses, community groups, councillors and others, to find out what they think about the state of local news, what impact this is having on their communities, and what they believe is needed to build a more sustainable local news economy. We found that:
• People believe that local news should be truly local. They don’t want ‘cookiecutter’ local news, but original local news that truly reflects their area.
• Despite their passion and commitment, local news providers are struggling to meet this need. Commercial providers are chasing page views, whilst independent providers are burning themselves out with long hours and low pay.
• Local stakeholders are keen to support new funding models for local news. They recognise that old revenue models have been disrupted, but they believe that, in many places, new sources of local funding can be found for local news.
• The Local News Planning process unlocks collaboration. It brings people together in a powerful spirit of creativity, agency and optimism.
These findings confirm the scale of the challenge facing local news, but they also contain the seeds of a new approach that we call ‘media wealth building’." (Summary, page 6)