Tag: local news

News deserts: A problem coming to a place near you

Remember the fable about frogs in a pot slowly being brought to the boil? News deserts are a little like that: You don’t realise you are in one until the sand starts to choke. 

Today Koi Tū Centre for Informed Futures has published my report on the growth of news deserts around the world, and the implications for New Zealand.

Millions of people around the world – 55 million in the United States alone – have limited or no access to local news. The ‘local rag’ that told them what was happening in their community has gone.

In Australia, 27 local authority areas have no local news outlets. In the past decade more than 200 regional newsrooms have closed.

In New Zealand, over the past seven years the two largest publishers (Stuff and NZME) have announced the closure of more than 40 newspaper titles. There are fewer journalists employed in New Zealand than by the New York Times (1400 versus 1700).

Too often, what replaces the long-established local newspaper is either inadequate or non-existent.

News deserts spell danger for social cohesion and democracy. They are already apparent in areas where the scrutiny of local journalists has been weakened or entirely removed. These are some of those effects:

  • Decreased public knowledge and participation in local democracy
  • Decreased social cohesion
  • Increased misinformation and disinformation
  • Increased official corruption
  • Higher costs of public finance
  • Less effective commercial advertising.

Many governments at national, state and local levels have acknowledged the need for intervention and have implemented measures to prevent or ameliorate the impact of news deserts.

No measures are currently in place that will prevent the growth of news deserts in New Zealand. Schemes such as the government-funded Local Democracy Reporting programme operate out of existing newsrooms which could themselves be threatened by cuts or even closure.

The report recommends a range of measures – by central and local government, the media industry, and the community – to prevent the sands smothering local journalism. You can access the report, written with the able assistance of several colleagues, on the Koi Tū website

Picture credit: iStock Piyaset

 

 

 

An arid outlook for local media and local democracy

New Zealand is about to feel the widespread effect of one of the consequences of media climate change – news deserts.

NZME’s announcement last week that it is “proposing” to close 14 of its community newspapers – that is a nice way of saying it has already decided to do so – will leave gaping holes in local reporting. Journalists, whose sole task is to tell people what is happening in their small communities, will lose their jobs.

The story, reported with uncharacteristic frankness (about itself) by the New Zealand Herald, also mentioned that the announcement came on the heels of major cuts this year by TV3 and TVNZ.

There is, however, a significant difference. TV3 contracted Stuff to fill the hole it created by closing Newshub, and TVNZ has sufficient means to cover news and current affairs even if it does so in reduced form. Once the NZME community titles go, residents will be deprived of vital links to information.

The Herald’s Shayne Currie, made no bones about it. He described the closures as “a body blow to local news in many New Zealand regions”, adding: “In some regions, these titles are the only source of local news, covering their local councils and other public bodies.” Continue reading “An arid outlook for local media and local democracy” →

Latest canary in coalmine littered with dead birds

 Crux, one of New Zealand’s most outstanding regional digital news start-ups, has “gone into hibernation” and there is a question mark over whether it can emerge from a deep sleep.

The creation of news veteran Peter Newport, Crux has been serving the Southern Lakes area since 2018 (and more recently Dunedin) on a combination of digital advertising, subscriptions, and contestable government funding.

The latter dried up with the present government’s cessation of the Public Interest Journalism Fund, although segments such as Local Democracy and Open Justice continue to be funded. Crux’s access to government money has stopped and the other two sources are insufficient to sustain it.

Newport, as its founder and managing editor, announced the “hibernation” during a media panel at the Queenstown Writers’ Festival. There was no small irony in the choice of venue. Sitting next to him was Media Minister Paul Goldsmith. He said in the announcement of the ‘hibernation’ that the minister had asked for an urgent review of regional media. However, this is probably no more than a reference by Goldsmith to the task of “supporting rural connectivity initiatives around New Zealand”  that he has delegated to his Under-Secretary Jenny Marcroft.

Goldsmith has picked up Labour’s Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill as a way for our media to extract money from the transnational search and social media platforms. If it has any chance of success (and I have my doubts) one thing is certain: local and regional operators like Crux will receive a pittance, if anything, from such ‘bargaining’. Continue reading “Latest canary in coalmine littered with dead birds” →

The ‘local rag’ is a vital part of democracy at community level

You may refer to it – with a variable mix of disdain and affection – as ‘the local rag’, but don’t call it a throwaway. Without community newspapers our local democracy is in peril.

Last week I spoke at the Community Newspapers Association conference and some of their publications, like media everywhere, are facing tough times. I expected as much, and admire the tenacity of these committed publishers and their staff who serve areas as varied as metropolitan suburbs and the hinterland of tiny rural towns.

There are about 78 community newspapers represented by the association and, leaving aside duplications, a further 52 (mostly owned by Stuff, or NZME) are part of the News Publishers Association. There has been some attrition but Community Newspapers Association president David MacKenzie says that start-ups have balanced out the casualties and membership has been stable for the past five years.

Their frequencies vary from five-days-a-week to monthly, the size from tabloid to quarter fold or less, and circulation from thousands to hundreds. Quality varies, too. Sometimes that reflects the experience of staff, but more often nowadays it is a reluctant reaction to making ends meet. 

An example of the latter is such a lack of resources that a publication is reduced to reproducing council media releases rather than sending a reporter to cover local body activities.

During the conference that led me into conversations with community publishers and editors about their relationships with local authorities. What I heard was disturbing.

Many of our community newspapers continue to devote their resources to holding councils and their elected representatives to account. The Community Newspaper of the Year in last week’s Voyager Awards, Warkworth’s Mahurangi Matters, was commended for doing just that. Some publications, however, are in a battle of wits with local authority communications staff. Continue reading “The ‘local rag’ is a vital part of democracy at community level” →