The government has been urged to ensure hyperlocal publishers are considered as recipients for a £2m fund aimed at supporting local public interest journalism.
The Independent Community News Network has welcomed the launch of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport ‘s Future News Fund, but has warned there must not be “too narrow a focus on who is eligible” for a share of the cash.
DCMS says the scheme will be used to fund a number of different initiatives, allowing publishers to test or expand new ways of providing sustainable public interest news, with the hope that new business models and greater use of data can be adopted across the industry as a result.
Its launch comes following recommendations in the Cairncross Review into the future of news provision in the UK.
Responding to the announcement, ICNN director Emma Meese, pictured, said: “This is a welcome development and we will be actively working to ensure that this fund is accessible to members of ICNN.
“ICNN has already been recognised by the Welsh Government as a mark of quality. Access to the Independent Community Journalism Fund requires that publications be members of ICNN.
“The Future News Fund must take care not to have too narrow a focus on who is eligible. Smaller organisations producing high quality independent public interest news must be considered alongside traditional publishers of news.”
Emma’s comments echo the stance taken by the Society of Editors, which has warned against making the fund’s eligibility criteria too narrow and questioned who will identify what is journalism of public interest.
The project will be administered by innovation foundation Nesta, and will run from this autumn until the end of the financial year.
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It’s great to see the ICNN championing the many news desks that are collectively highlighting the failings of the big publishers (who are to blame for the demise of local news).
I’d even go as far to say that hyperlocals should be prioritised for applications to this fund. They should also be given an appropriate method of application, after all, they won’t have a team of people solely working on funding applications or be able to take their mates, sorry the decision makers, out to lunch to promote themselves over others.
But, and it’s a big but, it must be clear that hyperlocals does not mean ‘someone with a phone who writes a blog’. We need to be sure that genuine, verifiable and regulated news desks with trained journalists are the only ones who can access this funding. Regardless of the size of their patch.
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At last!
As the Government has finally identified and highlighted this matter they must now do all they can to ensure it’s pushed through and happens.
The same old regional publishers who always get the funding and financial support have been propped up, spoon fed and bailed out for far too long while the small community publishers earn their revenues and manage their businesses by providing the level of local news and local advertising the others no longer offer and should be helped out with funding and staffing wherever possible.
Having proved time and again they’re no longer relevant in the local news market, the time has come to stop investing in the dinosaur publishers and to encourage and support the many credible and genuine independent local news publishers emerging right across the uk.
They are the future of hyper local community news and therefore need all the help they can get to succeed.
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