On Friday 5th March, the Media APPG kicked off another year of compelling online events with a lively panel discussion surrounding local media, this time in collaboration with Camelot. We looked at how the pandemic had highlighted local media’s importance and future funding options to ensure its longevity once lockdown is over.
With the discussion led by the Media APPG’s Chair Andy Carter MP, we welcomed the Executive Director of Camelot Matt Ridsdale, Founder and Editor of the Manchester Mill Joshi Herrmann, Editor of the Liverpool Echo Maria Breslin and Director of the Scottish Newspaper Society John McLellan.
Viewed by parliamentarians and local media journalists, the webinar first looked at how local media has adapted throughout the years to cater to the needs of their audience – especially in the last twelve months with the coronavirus pandemic turning everyday life on its head and the localised element of restrictions.
Maria Breslin, who was recently appointed as the Liverpool Echo’s new Editor, spoke about her new initiative to extend the Echo’s content to include the more rural areas of their audience. This touched on a question from the audience, who were concerned about how the hyperlocal media models differ in highly rural areas over cities. Breslin explained how she has changed the way in which the Echo worked, to ensure that they were truly engaging with their readers and responding to every call, every tweet.
John McLellan shared his views on what makes a successful local media business, stating in clear terms that quality content is what drives the industry. He also answered audience questions on the BBC Local Democracy Service, which funds aspiring journalists and deploys them to regional news organisations to help fill a gap in the reporting of local democracy issues across the UK. Although it is still in its early stages, John stated that the initiative has added to and improved coverage.
Editor of the newly-founded Manchester Mill Joshi was passionate about audience trust, saying that transparency in ways of working is key. His readers are presented with the data workings behind their investigations, and the Mill works to only produce content which is highly relevant to their local audience.
The question of future funding for local media was the hottest topic debated. Matt Ridsdale shared his innovative views on the value of media partnerships: Camelot has a number of local news partnerships to support the local media outlets which help them to find and maximise the stories of winners of The National Lottery. This allows for a close working partnership as local journalists also find out about where in their community National Lottery funding is being spent.
To round up all of our panelists’ views, we asked each of them to sum up what the future of local media will look like in five years’ time. For John, it’s all about investing in audience and relevance growth. Joshi claims that for local journalism to recover, we need to move away from an advertising model and focus on quality and subscriptions. A partnership model for funding is the key according to Matt; and Maria is passionate about investing in journalism with a clear campaign focus on the areas served and diversification.
You can watch the full webinar below:
