If we want to hold politicians to account, we need to save local newspapers

Without access to the strands of information that bring people together a local community can feel increasingly disconnected

Local newspapers face challenges both in print and online

Sinead Corr is unusual in that she works for a new local newspaper – the Bishop’s Stortford Independent in Essex – which is now expanding.

As the title’s news editor she is regularly out and about, covering every town council meeting and reporting from the local courts. The paper, which was launched in October 2017, has gone from strength to strength – the result, says Corr, of “concentrating on community news rather than clickbait.”

The Stortford story is a rare one in 2019, when many local newspapers are struggling with funding and with maintaining their readership. Some people might not be worried that their local paper is shrinking in size, or even closing. Perhaps, as the People’s Front of Judea did about the Romans in Life of Brian (back in our cinemas this Easter), they might ask: what did they ever do for me?

The answer is probably more than you might think. They might have found out if local councils had spent large amount of public cash on a project that had never come to fruition. If all the shops in the local high street were closing because rents were going sky-high the local paper would be there to ask the challenging questions about why.

Without access to the strands of information that bring people together a local community can feel increasingly disconnected. The power of individuals to challenge a big corporation comes from having large numbers who both know what is going on, and, secondly, want to do something about it.

A survey carried out for the upcoming Index on Censorship magazine in conjunction with the Society of Editors, found 97 per cent of local newspaper editors (print and online) were worried that local papers did not now have the resources to hold power to account in the way they did in the past.

Around 50 per cent of respondents said their biggest fear was that no one would be doing the difficult stories in the future, and 43 per cent of the editors surveyed said their biggest worry was that the public’s right to know would disappear. A smaller number, a fifth, said their biggest worry was that local news would just end up covering light, fun stories.

Those concerns are underlined by sliding readership figures for many once-strong local papers. To pick two examples, the Cambridge News saw a circulation fall of 34 per cent year on year, according to recent audited figures, and the Ipswich Star was 37 per cent down.

Ian Murray, director of the Society of Editors, has argued that there is a “real danger of local communities almost sleepwalking into this situation where you would have a cabal of people running the politics in town.”

Murray, who was formerly editor of the Southern Evening Echo, fears that only when local news media have gone will people realise what they needed them for – as residents ability to hold the powerful to account is found wanting.

Looking at this trend globally, Index found local papers going out of business in many countries.

In 2018 at least 10 local newspapers closed in China, including one of the most influential, the Legal Evening News, which used to be famous in Beijing for having a reporter on every block. The paper closed due to a combination of factors, including rising state censorship as well as a move towards internet advertising.

Chinese local newspapers have been operating since 1978, with some freedom to cover stories and acting in the role of a local watchdog. The state is currently tightening its hold, local independent newspapers are closing fast, while money from the government continues to support party media.

Our reporter says this about the situation in rural China: “Every time I visit my uncle in a northern Chinese village, he and his friends make tons of complaints to me about what is happening: the corrupt village chief, the pollution from the paper factory, and the way in which village land is being sold. But there isn’t a local newspaper, and the only ‘journalists’ are a few young women working for the government-controlled TV station, which only announces the officials’ decisions and praises how well the government is doing.”

What is happening in China is not the same as in the UK, but what happens next is that both populations see a reduction in “proper” reporting and find that they are less knowledgeable about what is going on in their neighbourhood.

With local news outlets disappearing, some hope that the wider web has some of the answers for what could happen next. But for many, social media is not delivering news; rather, it is serving up a selection of pretty photos, angry messages and family chat.

So what are Sinead Corr and her colleagues doing that is making a difference in Essex?

“We make an effort to pick up the phone – or better still have a face-to-face chat – with interviewees to get stories that aren’t already on social media. We invite them into our lovely high street office. Readers know they can pop in – and they do – to say hello or give us info (and cakes – we get lots of cakes).

“We allow local groups and charities to take over our shop window on a weekly basis to promote their events. We try and walk the walk.”

Perhaps there is hope for local news media yet.

Rachael Jolley is the editor of Index on Censorship magazine. The latest issue includes a special global report “Is This All The Local News?