Don’t overlook local news

We know the popularity of linear TV (ie what’s broadcast on a channel) is in a sharp decline – but I was interested to see how the BBC’s 6.30pm regional news programme was the most watched TV show for three consecutive days last week.

Thanks, as ever, to TV journalist Liam Hamilton for sharing these insights! Follow him on Twitter/X here.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened recently – Liam reported that BBC1’s biggest TV audience on Christmas Eve was for…the regional news bulletin!

And it happened again a couple of weeks earlier, too:

This is not to paint a rosy picture of news bulletins on linear TV – it is facing the same struggles as the rest of the broadcast output.

Recently, STV chief executive Rufus Radcliffe revealed that its flagship STV News at Six, the most watched regional news programme in Scotland, is “down over 20% year on year and is projected to reduce by over 40% by 2030.”

But there are signs that local news matters more than ever to people – but there are now so many more ways for us to keep up with it in a way we want, and when we want.

A rocky time for long-standing regional newsbrands

The number of us reading local news from commercial publishers has grown by 7% year-on-year, according to the latest Ipsos Iris figures shared by Behind Local News, up to 35.6 million.

It says that means 67% of the UK population is reading local news every month, though that figure drops for younger readers, with 38% of 18-24 year olds and 54% of 25-34s.

But page views are falling very significantly. Hold The Front Page reported that December’s stats “showed an overall year-on-year decline in page views of 27%, although the overall audience for the sector fell by just 0.46%.”

These tables are from Hold The Front Page – you can see the rankings in their entirety on its website.

This is coupled with the continuing decline of print, with Press Gazette reporting last September that “regional daily newspaper sales fell by an average of 18% in the first half of 2025 with just one title (the Belfast-based Irish News) above 20,000 copies per day.”

This makes sense why Reach continues to expand its ‘premium subscriptions’ for its regional titles online, with the latest being the Daily Record and Leicestershire Live.

But the latest stats I can find (from last September) appear to show that it’s hard for previously paper-focused brands to match their print subs, with the Irish News topping the table with only 3,450.

Local newsletters are thriving

Spotting big gaps in the market for original, distinctive and engaging local news, start-ups like The Mill and London Centric, which use slick-looking but easy to manage newsletter platforms like Substack and Ghost, have proven to be very successful – and continue to do so.

London Centric now has nearly 35,000 subscribers – with over 10% being paid, according to a Journalism UK interview with founder Jim Waterson in November. If you remember that the Irish News’ digital subs were at 3,450 at the latest official recording, that’s seriously impressive for a publication set up 18 months ago.

“I have to fight for every reader and bring people in, but once you’ve got them on that newsletter, people say they trust me”, Jim says.

It’s not just his focus on very sharable scoops and human stories, but how he writes them: “Journalism can be very pious and I believe in it so much, but you’ve got to have a bit of joy”.

Newsletters allow you to geek out with your niches too, such as former Reach journo Will Hayward’s on Welsh politics, with nearly 10,000 subscribers (I even have one about milestone anniversaries of memorable moments in wrestling history, which is a lot less successful!)

 

 

Nextdoor isn’t all about online arguments

There are now said to be 10 million people on Nextdoor – around one in four adults – but given that figure was from September 2024, that’s likely to have risen.

Yes, it can resemble your road’s WhatsApp chat at time with complaints, rows and the odd bad joke, but it is also a great way to share and gather local news. There are over 80,000 local groups based on fostering a sense of community and togetherness, or to discuss your passionate interests – and public bodies from No10 to councils and environment agencies see it as an effective communication tool.

Last year, it launched partnerships with local publications including the Kent Messenger and Grantham Journal and invited others to join – but we haven’t heard much, if anything, since about other titles (but I can see that my local news site is now on my ‘local news’ feed, which closely resembles a cross between Facebook and Nextdoor.)

What’s up with WhatsApp?

After the initial surge of excitement about the new shiny thing (*cough*, yep) was replaced by annoyance, with a constant bombardment of lazy link posts, a lot of publishers and readers have gone off WhatsApp Channels.

It seems from a quick scan that no regional paper has broken past 150,000 followers (and who knows how many are still active on those channels and reading those messages, let alone tapping through…)

But where there was failure is now hope. Rather than following the old style of news publisher route, local outlets appear to be enjoying more success through diversifying into smaller niche interest channels.

Take the Liverpool Echo, owned by Reach. Their bespoke channels on Liverpool FC (which includes Liverpool.com) are far more popular than the main account.

Again, it seems to make sense to me as a reader as I tend to want news that I know I will care about – think about when someone posts something in the group chat about a story or issue you have no interest in; are you going to bother to tap through, or zoom in, to read, let alone watch?

(Yes, my friends have told me when they don’t care about me constantly sending irrelevant tweets or TikToks…)

The enduring popularity of Facebook Groups

Tldr: it’s an oldie but a goodie.

Just take public sector comms consultant Dan Slee’s research from last July, entitled ‘The continued rise of Facebook groups in 2025’. He gives an example of Braintree in Essex, which has around 155,000 residents:

There are almost 600 Facebook groups of nearly every kind of niche and interest for those who live there. Dan says, “If you are a nerd about this, all this means that are roughly 5.5 Facebook group memberships per head of population.”

Social is a popular source of local news

Ofcom research last summer appeared to show that Facebook groups and other social media are still major source of local news and information.

This is where the incredible world of independent content creators has developed – similar to the newsletter guys, they have exploded in popularity by focusing on specific themes or issues and match it with very simple, powerful, and engaging storytelling and building powerful communities of loyal audiences.

One of my favourites at this is Zoë Bread, who brilliantly detailed her battle with Manchester City Council over a confusing parking ticket machine sign – a fantastic piece of investigative reporting. Her Instagram has been taken down for some reason, but she is still on TikTok.

However, those surveyed by Ofcom admitted they generally don’t see social media as reliable or as trustworthy as other forms of communication. But interestingly, they are more likely to believe posts on  neighbourhood apps like Nextdoor:

The final fascinating point from this Ofcom report is that adults in Scotland are more likely to use social media for news compared to the UK (57% to 51%). But adults in Northern Ireland are much less likely (46%).

What about YouTube and podcasts?

A lot has been written about the rise in popularity in podcasts, both in visualised and audio form, and how YouTube is by far the biggest streaming service in our TVs and also in terms of digital and social platforms.

But a great example of how local news organisations are adapting to these changes is a documentary by ITV Central called Decoy, which reunited the brave female undercover officers who trapped one of Britain’s most-wanted men in 1979 – and whose footage was instrumental in the killer’s re-arrest in 2022.

I had the pleasure of watching this for the RTS news awards in 2023 and not only was I captivated by the story, but admired the thinking behind its approach to production.

It was created for YouTube and what was then the ITV Hub, but it was later broadcast on their flagship evening bulletin, but broken down into five chapters, and shown each day over a week. It was also initially designed to work as a podcast too.

The number of people who viewed it at 6pm was dwarfed by the huge numbers who streamed it.

Rather than just attempting to get viewers to watch just a wide range of TV packages online, ITV Central were focusing here on the popular longform topic of crime, but combining it with strong, distinctive and human-centred storytelling.

It’s a similar approach that both the BBC and commercial radio has followed. Global and Bauer have led the way with their podcasts and video offerings, even as commercial radio continues to enjoy an incredible record number of listeners to its stations (I have suggested why those in comms should be harnessing the power of commercial radio here.)

What does this all mean?

Is it due to the crazy, confusing and increasingly frightening world we live in, which is then reflected in the national news agenda, that pushes us more to what is going on closer to home?

Or our preference to indulge in our passions with like-minded people and the platforms that allow us to it from our phones?

Or the ability to watch information and entertainment when and where we want to? Or that appointment to view TV now only matters when it brings audiences together for big cultural moments?

Or all of them?

I think it depends on your demographic – but what is true is that the media landscape is more fragmented, niche-based, and changing quicker than ever before.

It does mean there are fantastic opportunities for communicators to spread tailored and focused messages to target local audiences, and for agile digital-first start-ups to tap into gaps in the market and provide trusted and accurate regional reporting of potentially underreported issues.

But this also means a challenging time for publishers with historic media legacies – and some are adapting and equipping themselves better than others.