A call has been made to the new Cabinet Secretary for Education, Culture and Gaelic, Màiri McAllan, to help protect journalism in Scotland.
The UK Government announced a £12 million initiative to help public interest news in the UK in March when the UK Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, heralded the Local Media Strategy at the Society of Editors Future of News Conference.
This includes funding for local news publishers to “innovate digitally” and aims to help revive a local news presence in areas where there is none. It is unclear whether any of the UK Government funding will be spent in Scotland, but The Scottish Public Interest Journalism Initiative (SPIJI) warns about the negative impact of unregulated technology giants.
It also highlights other issues such the changing nature of news consumption which makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the flow of trustworthy news in Scotland when the public is “swamped with fake news and misinformation”.
SPIJI chair Richard Walker has warned the newly appointed Cabinet Secretary that the problem has reached crisis proportions which demand Scottish government recognition and action.
The organisation was established after a strong recommendation by a Scottish government working group set up in 2021 to look into the future of Scotland’s news industry, and the idea was welcomed by the Scottish government, which undertook to provide support for the next steps in setting it up.
SPIJI was recently successfully registered with Companies House and is preparing to launch a fund-raising campaign and commission detailed research into news provision around Scotland.
The Scottish government provides some administrative services for SPIJI but has not so far committed any financial support. Walker said he hopes the Westminster and Wales initiatives have established the principle of government funds being used to safeguard the sustainability of public interest journalism.
SPIJI has representatives from the ranks of journalism, publishers, the National Union of Journalists and academics.
Mr Walker said: ‘‘It is hard to think of a time when fearless and trustworthy journalism has been more essential for a functioning democracy and yet factors such as dramatic funding reductions and new technology are increasingly undermining the sustainability of the news business. Issues such as the diversion of over 80 per cent of UK marketing and advertising revenue from publishers to tech giants show a strong independent media industry cannot be left to the free market.’’
When Ms Nandy announced the fund she said: “This strategy will provide unprecedented funding for local media outlets to invest in innovation and infrastructure, almost tripling the size of funding for community radio, harnessing the power of local and national government and giving more young people access to high quality journalism and the opportunity to pursue careers in it.
“Because local media was, and always has been, a ladder of opportunity to help new voices break into journalism, this is not a nice to have. It is essential to a cohesive country. Our debate is too narrow and too small. We will change that. The strategy we publish today is the start – not the end point – and we recognise there is more to do. But it is the start of a new approach to local media, which nurtures it and places it directly at the heart of our government’s support for our country. Because the future of news is local.”
She added: ‘‘We believe there is a market for local media that is growing. In a world where facts are contested and debate has moved to the extremes, people are seeking out news they can trust and stories that reflect their lives and communities. As audiences move online, the foundations that once sustained local journalism have been shaken.’’
Some UK publishers have already closed their doors and Ms Nandy warned that as that happened there are stories which could be left untold.
It is well known that the story about Grenfell and the dangers in the tower block were not covered by local media, although highlighted by local bloggers in London long before the disaster happened, with little done to prevent it. The fact that there was no real local media presence was a clear failing. The story was not told loudly enough.
The Welsh Government has contributed to a number of grant schemes to help local news providers, including £100,000 in 2023 brokered by Ping! News CIC and ICNN and the Bristol based developer Omni Digital.
Ping! is also the body which brokered a deal with Google for local publishers, including The Edinburgh Reporter. You can read our news on the Google News Showcase here.
