Imagine there’s no local news. You hardly have to try. Hundreds of local newspaper titles have disappeared over the past 10 years, BBC local radio is in freefall and local television has sunk from view. More than 4 million people in the UK live in “news deserts” without adequate local journalism, and millions more reside in “news drylands”, where local news is close to collapse.
But this isn’t the whole story. While legacy publishers and broadcasters grapple with economic headwinds and blame social media platforms for their woes, a new generation of independent news providers is emerging. Unsung, unfunded and mostly underpaid, these indies are reimagining local news in communities from Shetland to the Isle of Wight and from Caerphilly to Newry.
