This summer, the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council banned a local news outlet from engaging with any of his 40 elected representatives. Councillor Mick Barton of Reform UK also instructed council officials to stop sending press releases and event invitations to journalists at Nottinghamshire Live.
Why? Because these journalists had upset Barton with their coverage of his party.
When Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, was asked about this at a US Congressional hearing, he came out with characteristic bluster about his absolute commitment to free speech while denying responsibility for the ban.
A few days later, Reform UK hosted a well-known anti-vaxxer at their annual conference. Challenged about the lack of scientific evidence for his claims, a party spokesperson told the BBC, “Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech.”
It may seem strange when a political party defends the freedom to spread falsehoods while curtailing the freedom to tell the truth, but this is straight out of the populist playbook. From Trump’s America to Orban’s Hungary and Modi’s India, authoritarian politicians are demonising journalists while praising fantasists. Every day, the bond between journalists and the public is stretched closer to breaking point – though this relationship was never in great health.
The internet disrupted the business model for local newspapers, forcing hundreds of titles to close, while social media gave the public the opportunity to make sense of things on their own terms.
At first, platforms like Twitter (now X) and Facebook looked like democracy in action: everyone had a voice, and everyone could enter the conversation. We now know this was a false promise. Social media amplifies some voices above others and is easily co-opted by politicians and activists for their own ends.
To ensure a democratic public sphere, we need to rebuild the base layer of democracy – local news. Policymakers, philanthropists, investors and local news providers urgently need to take six steps to regenerate local news for the twenty-first century.
Firstly, local news needs to be demonstrably local. The more reporters are visible in their communities, the more they will be trusted. If journalists are setting out to hold local politicians accountable, then they too need to be accountable. This is partly about independent and effective media regulation, but also about building relationships with audiences and exploring co-creational models of local news, where communities are actively involved in producing journalism.
Secondly, local news needs a sustainable business model. This likely means a blend of revenue streams, including subscriptions, donations and commercial partnerships, to avoid reliance on any one source.
Thirdly, local news must operate in the public interest, with stories that clearly inform and empower local people – not clickbait about celebrities or national politics.
Fourthly, local news needs to keep innovating. A printed newspaper is still a great way of telling the story of a local area, but it is an alien artefact for many readers. If audiences prefer to engage with short videos, podcasts or newsletters, then local providers must use those formats.
This also means policymakers must broker a new settlement between big tech and local news. The platforms may own the audience, but they do not own the public sphere. They should have a legal responsibility to carry local news with due prominence, so serious reporters can counter populists and fantasists with accurate, ethical journalism.
Fifthly, the people making local news need to resemble the people they’re representing. In the UK, the journalism workforce is disproportionately white and able-bodied, while the costs of higher education remain a barrier to working-class journalists. We need to diversify local news across every axis of identity.
Finally, local news needs to be engaging. It cannot be like the vegetables we’re supposed to eat but cannot stomach. It must be a mix of compelling stories and genuinely useful information.
Those who want to destroy democracy are working hard to undermine local news. But we will not restore democratic norms simply by saying that local news is good for people. To coin a phrase, we need to make local news great again.
The good news is that pioneering journalists are reinventing local news around the world. They urgently need patient capital to build models that are accountable, sustainable, public-interest driven, innovative, representative and engaging.
It is not too late to regenerate local news – but time is running out.
Jonathan Heawood is Executive Director of the Public Interest News Foundation. This article was commissioned as part of the World News Day campaign to highlight the value of journalism.
