Everyone in the U.K. deserves to have access to truly local news.
Truly local news is rooted in the concerns of the community. It covers the work of MPs and local authorities, celebrating success and asking the hard questions that need to be asked. It translates national politics into everyday life, in terms that everyone can understand. It is fair and impartial, rigorous and honest.
Truly local news builds economic value for the community. It creates jobs and boosts local businesses. It employs local people and buys local services.
Truly local news is part of the community. It speaks to, for and with everyone in the community, whatever their background or beliefs. It creates a shared space in which people come together, regardless of their differences. And, when it gets things wrong, it is accountable to the community.
Too many people in the U.K. do not have access to truly local news. Instead, they get their news from social media, council free sheets or regional newspapers that are based hundreds of miles away. Too often, these news sources do not speak to the concerns of the local community, do not build economic value for the community and are not really part of the community.
MPs now have a once-in-a-generation chance to build a better news economy. At the News for All Campaign, we believe that it is possible for everyone to have access to local news that adds democratic, economic and social value to local communities.
We have three simple recommendations to spread truly local news to every local community in the U.K.
Through these simple but far-reaching measures, which build on the recommendations of the Cairncross Review, MPs can help their constituents build communities that are thriving and powerful, creative and confident, and ensure a news economy for the UK that is truly sustainable.
Signed,
Aidan White, Publisher, Newham Voices
Abla Kandalaft, Board Member, Independent Media Association
Daniel Ionescu, Managing Editor, The Lincolnite / Lincolnshire Reporter
Darren Toogood, Editor/Publisher, Island Echo
David Floyd, Managing Director, Social Spider (London)
David Prior, Hyperlocal Today
David Riley, Managing Director, Reading Today & Wokingham Today
Dr Tom Mills, Chair, Media Reform Coalition
Ed Procter, CEO, IMPRESS
Eliz Mizon, media writer and organiser
Hans Marter, Managing Editor, Shetland News Online
James Hatts, Editor, London SE1
Jamie Wareham, Executive Producer, Queer AF
John Baron, Editor, West Leeds Dispatch
Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation
Joshi Herrmann, Editor, The Mill (Manchester)
Julian Calvert, Editor, The Lochside Press
Kathy Bailes, The Isle of Thanet News
Keith Magnum, Editor-in-Chief, Citizen News & Media (Hackney)
Louise Houghton, Co-Director, Bylines Networks
Marianne Brooker, Communications & Partnerships Coordinator, the Bristol Cable
Matt Abbott, Deputy Director, ICNN
Megan Lucero, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Paul Hutchinson, Co-Managing Editor, Bedford Independent
Rhiannon Davies, Founding Editor, Greater Govanhill
Richard Gurner, Editor & Publisher, Caerphilly Observer
Rowan Gavin and Alex Valente, Co-Editors, The Norwich Radical
Sam Walby, Editor-in-Chief, Now Then Magazine (Sheffield)
Sarah Cheverton, Editor, Star & Crescent (Portsmouth)
Simon Bax, Founder, Clear Sky Publishing (Devon)
Simon Perry, Editor, On the Wight (Isle of Wight)
Tabitha Stapely, Founder and Director, Social Streets (London)
Una Murphy, Publisher, View Digital (Belfast)