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What's next for local news in 2025?

Writer's picture: Beckie ShukerBeckie Shuker

PINF’s Campaign and Communications Manager, Beckie Shuker, unpacks some of the latest political developments in the realm of local news. 


Local news is hotting up as a political issue, with more and more people becoming aware of the urgent need for action to support local news going into 2025. It’s true that we’re seeing decreasing trust in news and rising levels of news avoidance, shrinking press freedom and deepening inequality within the field.

 

However, more than ever, eyes are being opened to the importance of local news for democracy, shared understandings and community cohesion, and increasing shared interest in finding solutions to the problem. 

 

In the last two months, we’ve seen the publication of reports from Ofcom and the House of Lords, as well as the CMA’s guidance on the new digital markets competition regime. 

 

So, what do these reports and publications all amount to? Well, it’s my happy task to wade through these many hundreds of pages so that you don’t have to!  

 

Starting with the House of Lords, in November 2024, the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee published their report The Future of News. The Committee took evidence from various stakeholders, producing a very comprehensive, 97-page round up of the state of news media in the UK.  

 

The Committee made a number of recommendations throughout the report that, if implemented, would directly or indirectly support local news. Direct interventions include tax breaks for hiring local journalists, training schemes for local news, an expanded Local Democracy Reporting Service (LRDS), changing the outdated definition of ‘newspaper’ to allow local outlets to benefit from public notice ad spend, and updating the role of the BBC at charter renewal to include objectives relating to local news.  

 

Other recommendations apply to the whole of the media ecosystem, but local news providers would also benefit, including a Future News innovation catalyst scheme to improve long-term financial sustainability, an investigation by the CMA into anti-competitive practices by big tech using AI, updated Ofcom rules on media plurality, Ofcom powers to investigate tech firm recommender algorithms and Large Language Models, and anti-SLAPP legislation.  

 

We were really pleased to see much of PINF’s 18-page submission reflected in the report, including our research on news deserts and two of our specific recommendations on funding for journalism initiatives and changing the rules on public notices attributed to our advice. 

 

We can’t do this advocacy without our fantastic network of public interest news providers, so in case you needed another reminder, our 2025 provider survey is now live. Your input enables us to respond with confidence and clarity to consultations and calls for evidence, so please do take the time to fill the survey in and keep our research fresh.  

 

In the same week, Ofcom published the second and final part of its equally extensive review of local media in the UK. The report suggested similar options that could be taken forward to support sustainable local news, again touching on public notice rules and expansion of the LDRS.  

 

However, in some ways the Ofcom suggestions went further than the House of Lords Committee, indicating that a Public Interest News Institute could support sustainability and an innovation fund could provide short term seed funding for local news providers.  

 

In other ways it took a softer approach, highlighting Ofcom’s ongoing media literacy work and suggesting that others could develop similar programmes for local communities and proposing local authorities and metro mayors could play a stronger role in supporting local news ecology. 

 

It’s clear that the Ofcom report was hugely influenced by local news providers, so a huge thanks to those who took part in our workshop with Ofcom and contributed to this research last year. 

 

Coming to our last, but by no means least update for today, in December 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued its final guidance on how the UK’s digital markets competition regime will work, allowing it to begin the process of regulating the most powerful companies in the world. 

 

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act was given Royal Assent last May, in the hopes of introducing a competitive, level playing field by empowering the CMA to regulate the largest players in the UK’s digital marketplace. 

 

Following up on a consultation regarding their draft guidance, the CMA simultaneously published a summary of responses. In response to PINF’s submissions, we were pleased to see the many of the suggestions we made reflected.  

 

For example, the CMA has committed to publishing timetables at the beginning of a case, including relevant timings for each step, and particularly in relation to the six-month Final Offer Mechanism (FOM) window. They clarified that enforcement powers will be used where the CMA considers that participative resolution isn’t appropriate. The CMA also recognised that information requests could have a big impact on small firms, and committed to avoid placing unnecessary burdens on firms.  


This week, the CMA have launched their first investigation under the regime, unsurprisingly focused on Google’s dominance in search and search advertising. 


All in all, it feels like 2025 is going to be a critical year for local news. The government’s new Local Media Strategy will be a key battleground to determine which of these many and varied solutions will be taken up and enacted by government. We don’t know yet exactly how the strategy will be determined, but PINF will work with local news providers to make sure that they are heard, loud and clear, as soon as the opportunity arises.  


© 2024 Public Interest News Foundation 

Public Interest News Foundation is a registered Charity No. 1191397. Registered as a Company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No. 12320800. Registered office at 4th Floor, 18 St. Cross Street, London, England, EC1N 8UN

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