ABSTRACT
2020 was a crossroads for local news journalism, as a pandemic swept the globe, threatening lives and also livelihoods. Media outlets large and small have been affected, and things look grim financially despite soaring traffic and engagement. Over the last decade, many local newspapers have been asset-stripped by their owners, and large numbers of journalists have been lost from the landscape. Industry shrinkage, the move to online and likely also a decrease in the volume of quality content saw weekly circulation of local and regional titles plummet from 63 million to 31 million over the same decade. Local reporting and the health of local democracy are inextricably interlinked, and decisions that affect people’s daily lives are now often going unscrutinised.
