Fostering innovation in UK’s local journalism: findings and suggestions from a nation-wide solutions journalism campaign

Publisher: Uk Parliament

Abstract:

Submission to the Sustainability of Local Journalism Enquiry, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, UK Parliament – March 2022

Executive summary: This submission focuses on how the government can support local news outlets to develop sustainable business models, through reflections on successes and failures of an ongoing campaign to introduce the innovative form of solutions journalism into more than 50 local newsrooms across the UK. The campaign is at the core of an action research project funded by the UK Research and Innovation. Based on the evidence so far, we will demonstrate how innovation is a “chicken and egg” conundrum for local newsrooms: as the cash cow is depleting, the financial and other resources needed for innovation are simply not there. Based on that, we will call on the government to set up a nation-wide local journalism innovation fund, with some suggestions on what problems it should address and how it might work.

https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/107585/html/

Source: Manual