At the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF), we believe that everyone in the UK should benefit from public interest news that speaks to them, for them and with them.
Nowhere are the challenges facing the provision of public interest news greater than in local communities.
In order to strengthen public interest news in local communities, we have conceived – in collaboration with NewsNow, the UK's independent news discovery platform – a project to produce dedicated ‘Local News Plans’ for six locations around the UK.
The Local News Plans will set out a shared vision for the future of public interest news in each area, and will include commitments to support this vision from stakeholders such as local politicians, business leaders, civil society organisations and people with lived experience of relevant issues.
The six Plans will be hosted on a dedicated website, and lessons from the project will also be shared in a report aimed at policymakers and philanthropists.
The project will be run by PINF, working with local stewards to support the planning process in each area. The six stewards will identify local stakeholders, and invite these stakeholders to a workshop to create a Local News Plan for their area.
PINF will facilitate the workshops and draft the Local News Plans, which will be shared with the local communities for further discussion.
We expect the workshops to take place in autumn 2022.
In the short term, PINF expects the Local News Plans to lead to greater awareness of the public benefit of public interest news; greater commitment to public interest news from local stakeholders; and greater support for local providers of public interest news.
In the long term, PINF expects the project to create a ‘Local News Plan’ template that can be replicated in other areas, leading to greater likelihood of support for public interest news from philanthropists, investors and policymakers; and – ultimately – greater likelihood of sustainability for public interest news providers across the UK.
NewsNow has generously provided the funding for this project.
To find out more, and to register your interest in a Local News Plan for your area, please contact PINF.