We're delighted to welcome two new Trustees, James Westhead and Meera Selva, to the PINF board. Read all about them in their own words, in this introductory blog.
JAMES WESTHEAD is Head of Engagement at Better Society Capital, the UK's leading social impact investor with a mission to mobilise more money for positive social impact. He leads on communications, policy and advocacy, and engagement with government, investors and the social sector. Previously James led external relations for the education charity Teach First, helping build it into the country's largest recruiter of graduate teachers. Prior to that, he spent twenty years as a BBC News Correspondent specialising in education, health and social affairs, including two years as the BBC's Washington correspondent.
MEERA SELVA is chief executive of Internews Europe, a not-for-profit organization which supports independent media and information ecosystems in over 40 countries. She is an experienced journalist who has reported from the field across Europe, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. She is also a senior research associate of the Reuters Institute and an associate fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford, and co-founder of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.
JAMES' BLOG
I first walked into a local radio newsroom in Chatham in Kent in 1990, straight out of a broadcast journalism diploma, and spent seven years learning why local news matters. If all politics is local, then so is all news and if no one is there to report it we all gradually lose out.
Over the next decade I moved on to national and then international news as a BBC News Correspondent covering education, health and social affairs, and then later as a correspondent in Washington DC. It was a great time to be a journalist: big stories, big resources, and a licence to go and find things out. But one thing remained constant – almost every story however big was ultimately local – it either started or finished with people and the effect on their lives.
Covering education, health and social affairs meant sitting in schools, surgeries, court rooms and front rooms all over the UK. I saw how a single accurate story about a failing service, often starting local, could change what happened next. That's a very direct kind of accountability, and it's exactly what's disappearing as local newsrooms shrink or vanish altogether. Since then, almost everything about the technology and economics of news has changed, even as the importance and appetite for it hasn't.
After the BBC I became inspired by the possibility of change. Then after ten years at the education charity Teach First, I learned that social change is actually possible even in our messy, complex education system through the power of people and their leadership. We helped transform outcomes for the most disadvantaged youngsters in London and many parts of England. That hope took me into social impact investment at Better Society Capital, where I now lead our work on engagement, policy and communications. The underlying question has stayed the same: how do you get serious financial and human capital behind things that matter to society but that markets alone won't sustain?
PINF is asking exactly the same question about public interest news — treating its survival not as a lost cause to mourn but as a solvable funding and market problem, which is exactly the kind of framing that got me interested.
The challenges are real: collapsing local advertising revenue, news deserts, audiences drifting away from anything resembling accountability journalism. But there's real reason for hope too, in the growth of independent and community newsrooms, and in funders and investors starting to treat public interest news as essential infrastructure rather than a charity case.
I'm looking forward to bringing what I've learned about mobilising capital for underserved causes to PINF's board, and I expect to learn just as much in return about what it actually takes to keep a free press alive at the local level — something I care about as a citizen as much as a former journalist.
MEERA'S BLOG
I started in journalism with a weekend job for a Sunday paper while I was studying at Cardiff University. The printing presses were still in the same building then, and my job was essentially to be a runner between the presses and the newsroom. And then to go get chips for everyone whilst they waited for the paper to go to press. I nagged and cajoled the news editor to let me write some stories too for free, but I basically got paid for getting the chips.
The newsrooms are still there, but without the printing presses and without the smell of cigarette smoke. And now I’m not sure anyone would even get paid to get the chips.
I would say an experience that made me realise just how important public interest news was in Wales, pre-devolution, when it felt like only the local newspapers would cover the details of how Westminster policy was playing out among local communities. Across the years, the link between a community and their local news provider was smashed to smithereens through carelessness and greed, and journalists themselves stopped seeing local newspapers as the place where you get great scoops and in-depth stories. This is changing - there are some fantastic, digital first outlets out there that are both doing excellent journalism and building up real connections to their community, and it’s seen as an exciting place to work again.
I worked as a journalist for over 20 years and am now CEO of a media charity that supports independent journalism around the world. I’ve known the PINF CEO, Jonathan Heawood, for years, and have admired the way PINF has advocated for local news. I became a trustee because I wanted to ensure I stay involved with UK journalism and support their work. I’m really looking forward to learning more from the local news outlets PINF supports.
Currently, PINF is recruiting for a new Treasurer trustee to lead on financial oversight for the Board. If this position is of interest, please follow this link for the full role specification, and help us support innovative local news providers to build sustainable futures.
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