Legacy local news
Traditional local news publishers with profit-driven corporate ownership structures failed to create new business models as Silicon Valley rose and their advertising revenues fell. They pursued consolidation and staff cuts instead of reinvestment and reinvention to counter the threat from the tech giants. Along the way they abandoned responsibility for local public interest news publishing.
Just four publishers now control 88% of the UK’s local and regional titles and 96% of local authority districts have a single dominant local news publisher. Thousands of jobs have gone. Yet the publishers remain ensnared in platform algorithms and diminishing online returns.
Targets are imposed on journalists, who are often described as “battery hens” because they often produce half a dozen stories a day, to generate as many page views as possible. This approach discounts editorial responsibility in favour of clickbait headlines and ephemeral content that rarely reflects the public interest or even constitutes journalism at all.
The resulting churnalism and cheerleading merely amplifies content marketing and public relations spin. Local authority press releases are often more promotional message than public information. More than 90% of local public interest news articles now come from managed media sources instead of reporters attending council meetings.
This publishing model cannot keep people informed about important issues that affect them and the communities in which they live and work.
Research shows a clear link between the decline in local public interest news and falling engagement with local democracy, as well as negative impacts on the accountability of local institutions and public finance management. Other studies show that trust in news has declined alongside trust in other civic institutions.
Only publishers with the operational capacity and editorial independence to make informed judgements in the public interest can deliver the journalism that local democracy needs.
More about Exeter Observer
- A new kind of independent news organisation
- Distribution & promotion
- Democracy doesn't work when people don't know
- Legacy local news
- Exeter media in perspective
- Local news that matters
- References
Exeter Observer is published by Exeter Observer Limited, Community Benefit Society No. 8435 registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014.
Our registered address is St Sidwell’s Community Centre, Sidwell Street, Exeter EX4 6NN.