On local journalism

A once burgeoning sector currently seems stuck somewhere between death and rebirth. Will the long promised online revolution finally save it?

When I first became involved in politics in the mid 2000s, the local press was a force to be reckoned with. I worked for MPs at the time and, here in the East, the front page of the East Anglian Daily Times was a much-sought prize. I fondly remember one MP, who will remain nameless, who was so keen for a front-page splash, he and I worked through Christmas Day morning to be sure of securing the Boxing Day lead. Now, with a circulation of around 6,500 copies (as of 2023), is that front page something anyone other than politicians and journalists really notice?

Online is where the action is and clicks matter. Headlines have become (even) more sensationalist and local Facebook groups are awash with keen young journos either scouting for stories or posting links to ones they’ve just written. The comments sections tend to betray what is a wider problem; lots of people reacting to the headline but not having read the story. When it’s something political, this is a problem for us as local representatives and for papers desperate for the ad revenue.

It's a similar story with the decline of BBC local radio. Back when I was first appointed to the Suffolk County Council Cabinet in 2018, the BBC Radio Suffolk breakfast slot with the excellent Mark Murphy was the cause of sleepless nights. He had the ability to go from cuddly teddy bear discussing the candyfloss current affairs of the day into full on grizzly bear when the latest public sector ‘failing’ was exposed. Good presenters have followed him but none have had his desire, or perhaps editorial direction, to hold local politicians to account in quite the same way. The fault rests squarely with the BBC, whose lack of passion for local radio is clear for all to see.

Television remains far better. Look East and Anglia News persist and the fact we have a thirty-minute regional politics show on a Sunday, in the BBC’s Politics East, gives much needed scrutiny and – importantly – space for actual conversations rather than soundbites. We might not always like the content, my fellow guest on last Sunday’s show, Kevin Keeble of the East of England Energy Group, incurred the rightful wrath of pylon campaigners. However, at least we were there, on a major television channel, discussing what is one of the most important local issues. Perhaps TV is the outlier because it caters to one of things we still want in this era of reels and TikTok - easily digestible video content. That it is still relevant here in the East is a credit to all those involved.

Politics East casts a wide net, however, and can’t be there to hold local MPs, councils and councillors to account on every issue. It’s here that the decline of the local print media and radio is most acutely felt. Initially, when Mark Murphy left the airwaves there was a slight sense of relief (no offence, Mark), Now I wonder who is there making us better, making us fearful and questioning the narrative we create around the work we’re doing. It makes it too easy for us to believe our own myths, that everything we do is perfect and every pound is wisely spent.

In this void, we are seeing movement. New smaller radio stations are starting up on online. Here in East Anglia, Suffolk Sound is home to a show from local political journalist, Paul Geater, and a weekend slot from former BBC presenter, Mark Murphy. But there remains a gulf between the variety of podcasts we have picking apart national politics and what local radio used to provide doing the same locally. An opportunity, perhaps, and one I’m sure we’ll see more people step into.

The future of local print journalism is altogether less certain. Back when I was working for MPs, I would have the numbers of countless local journalists stored in my phone. These were people who stayed in the role for years, were embedded in the local area and were across the detail of the most minute issues. Now, the names change almost by the week and there is little investigative reporting. There just isn’t the capacity. Local Democracy Reporters are the exception, but the best ones don’t stay in the role for long before they’re snapped up nationally.

Again, this decline initially brought with it a sense of relief from politicians keen to sidestep scrutiny. A shift from questioning assessments of press releases issued to something more akin to the recipient journalist hitting ctrl-c, ctrl-v and then emailing to ask if we also have a photo to sit alongside it. But where is the critical thinking? Where are we forced to be better? Of course, difficult headlines still come but they’re similarly spoon-fed by our detractors. Then there’s the odd opinion piece from a long-standing journalist in the deep recesses of local papers beyond the letters page. Sometimes as local politicians we get sucked into what feels like an exchange of long-form essays. Because we too are offered these columns. There, sandwiched between letters trying to track down long-lost relatives and a business section even fewer people read, is about the only place that proper debate still goes on in-print locally. But whether the readership extends beyond friends, family and fellow politicos, I’m unsure.

Is there opportunity here? Could someone innovative step into the local news space and revitalise print journalism? Without that, we are seemingly in its death throes. Or is the future online? Properly done, could a combination of local online news, rapid reaction Substacks, podcasts and vlogs bring scrutiny to an area where it’s becoming increasingly sparse? It’s on these more long-form platforms, and shows like Politics East, that we can once again raise the level of public discourse at a local level.