A FUNDING project has been launched to explore new ways of delivering local news.
Says the Carnegie UK Trust, in announcing that it will fund five experiments to sustain or improve local news provision – each to the tune of £10,000: “Local news media is so important to community cohesion and social wellbeing that 97 per cent of people want to see coverage of current events in their area maintained or increased.”
Adds the Dunferline-based research and policy organisation: “With increasing commercial pressures and significant competition to the current business model, 31 weekly newspapers in England, Scotland and Wales ceased trading in 2011. For those that remain, the resources available to support high-quality journalism based on original news gathering and investigative reporting are greatly reduced.”
Existing media outlets, plus ‘civil society organisations’, are being invited to apply for the funding to deliver – says the Trust – “a local news project in a clearly defined geographic area”.
The Trust goes on to say: “Projects may be innovation of existing news provision, for example, covering a new area of content, or the development of new projects, such as a new platform to deliver news.”
Applications are being sought from the tenth of January.
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