Your contribution to the study will help us to understand the independent news landscape in the UK more clearly. You may find the results interesting as a benchmark for your bsuiness model and editorial strategy. In turn, the Index will help PINF to raise funding and other forms of support for public interest news.

The research for the PINF Index will be carried out by Clare Cook and Dr Coral Milburn-Curtis of the Media Innovation Studio at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). It is funded by PINF. More information about PINF's budget can be found here.

The study has been reviewed and approved by UCLan’s Ethics Committee.

If you have any concerns about the way in which the study has been conducted, you should contact UCLan’s Officer for Ethics (OfficerforEthics@uclan.ac.uk).

The PINF Index is the first comprehensive survey of the independent public interest news sector in the UK. The Index will provide a unique insight into the sector by revealing publishers’ business models, editorial priorities, audience characteristics and more. This information will help funders and policymakers to address the challenges facing public interest news in the digital age.

The PINF Index is open to professional providers of public interest news that produce primarily text-based reporting. They may provide local news, investigative journalism or specialist reporting, and they may operate primarily in print or online. In 2021, the Index will be limited to publishers with annual turnover below £2m, because this ‘long tail’ of the news industry lacks visibility and is not well understood by donors or policymakers. The scope of the Index may be revised in future years.

PINF will publish anonymised general findings and share aggregated data with academics, policy makers, funders and other partners. Survey responses may be shared with charity sponsors as part of the evaluation and analysis of the programme. No organisation-specific information will be shared publicly unless specifically authorised by a news publisher.

Before you decide whether or not to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read the information below carefully.

It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you should subscribe on the registration form above. You will then receive further details, and access to the online survey. If you decide to take part, you may complete the online survey.

We do not anticipate any risks to participation in this study.

There is a specific question in the survey addressing this, and you will have the opportunity to clarify as needed. If you represent a publishing group which publishes more than one publication, you may complete a full survey for each publication separately, if this makes most sense to you. If you do respond separately for each publication, please make sure your answers are consistent throughout, so the data refers only to the publication in question and not the broader publishing group.

If you have any questions, you may contact Dr Coral Milburn-Curtis at CMilburn-Curtis@uclan.ac.uk

The online survey opens on 17 February 2021 and will close on 17 March 2021. We expect to publish the findings in July 2021.

You can end your participation in the study at any point, by closing the survey tab.

You will be able to request a copy of the findings, by emailing CMilburn-Curtis@uclan.ac.uk

The PINF Index is based on the INN Index, created by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), which has been running annually in the United States since 2018. The INN Index has demonstrated the valuable role played by independent news publishers in the US. It has helped to increase funders’ interest in the sector, and to identify new models of public interest news.

Your participation in this project will contribute to range of practical and academic activities. In the first instance, it will help us gather evidence which will feed into policy, capacity building and funding work. The researchers also intend to use the data in related academic papers and presentations.

All information about you as an individual will be kept strictly anonymous. Data will be stored electronically, and confidentiality, privacy and anonymity are ensured in the collection, storage and publication of research material. You will have an option for some statements in section two to be attributed to your organisation. Data generated by the study is retained in accordance with the UCLan's policy on Academic Integrity. The data generated in the course of the research will be kept securely in electronic form for 10 years from the end of the project.

The survey should take about 25 minutes to complete.

Publishers will need to provide rough percentage data on revenues, expenses, staffing and audience characteristics.

Your answers should relate to the last full year for which you have complete financial data, whichever that 12 month period is. For example, if your most recent accounts cover the period from 1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020, or from 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2020, then you should use the same period for all of your answers.

Unfortunately, no. The survey cannot be saved as a work in progress, so please make sure that you have the relevant information available before you start. You will need to provide rough percentage data on revenues, expenses, staffing and audience characteristics.

The online survey opens on 17 February 2021 and will close on 17 March 2021. We expect to publish the findings in July 2021.

For questions about the content of the survey, please contact Dr Coral Milburn-Curtis (CMilburn-Curtis@uclan.ac.uk).

For any other questions, you may contact contact@publicinterestnews.org.uk