Read all about it: Community news should have DGR status

Local and Independent News Association (LINA) executive director Claire Stuchbery said organisations struggling to deliver public interest journalism at the local level should be granted deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.

This would allow their supporters to receive a tax deduction on their donations, an important step in ensuring the sustainability of local news in a parlous media environment.

Speaking as part of a recent panel discussion titled “Local news: who needs it?” in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, Stuchbery said local journalism was essential to building stronger communities, yet its future was far from assured.

“What we’ve seen over decades now is the difficulty of communities in supporting local newsrooms on their own,” said Stuchbery, citing the twin impact of increased syndication and local newspaper closures across the nation.

“So there’s certainly a role for government in helping to resource public interest journalism in particular and also in creating a policy environment in which local media can thrive.”

The panel event was organised to mark the five-year anniversary of the hyperlocal news initiative Brunswick Voice.

Originally launched as a blog by former Herald Sun journalist and Brunswick resident Mark Phillips during the covid pandemic in response to the lack of community news sources in the suburb, the enterprise has since expanded to include a news website, a weekly email newsletter and a quarterly print edition.

The panel discussion, which was moderated by ABC journalist Daniel Ziffer, also included Phillips; the founder and editor of the North Fitzroy newspaper The Rotunda, Charlie Gill; the head of editorial innovation at The Conversation, Ashlynne McGhee, and the executive officer of the Inner North Community Foundation, Ben Rodgers.

All argued passionately for the importance of giving communities a voice through local journalism that reported on the issues important to them and highlighted the stories and contributions of local residents, stories often ignored by larger media organisations.

McGhee, a former president of the Melbourne Press Club who started her journalism career in local news more than two decades ago, said the impact of the contraction of community media had been huge.

“I think it's a really difficult thing for communities when they don’t have good access to local news,” she said.

“The community is left poorer for it and I think people then turn to other places for news and see all kinds of crazy talk on all types of crazy Facebook groups.”

Stuchbery said it was in governments’ own interests to support local journalism.

“It is in the interests of governments and media, really, to have people who are participating in civic engagement and have resilient communities, particularly when you think about emerging issues such as social cohesion.

“[It’s important] to make sure you actually know what’s going on in the world.”

Rodgers echoed her sentiments and urged community members to support local media however they could, whether by volunteering their time or reaching into their own pockets and donating funds.

“[It’s vital] to provide a floor for a democratic, evidence-based journalism that’s based on 100 years of standards rather than the feelings that we get through social media.”

Phillips said he was motivated to begin writing about issues in his local community when the first time he learned of council changes to rubbish bin collection in his neighbourhood was from a leaflet dropped in his letterbox.

“I thought, how come I haven’t heard about this before or read about this? Where has the debate been about this? Why are we just hearing about this from the council? Why hasn’t there been any news reporting about this?”

His former local paper, The Moreland Leader, had shut down overnight a year earlier, along with most of the Leader media group’s other suburban mastheads.

“So this flyer drops in my letterbox and I was having these thoughts that back when I was a suburban newspaper reporter, this would have been front page news.

“So I looked in the mirror and thought, somebody should do something about this.”

In the years since, Phillips has commited precious time and cash from his own pocket into making Brunswick Voice an important part of the local community.

He said the publication wouldn’t be what it is today, though, without the support of dedicated volunteers, who range from guest writers to those who help deliver the physical copies of the paper to readers.

Phillips said his two biggest hurdles were money and time.

“I haven’t really had the time to devote to the business side of Brunswick Voice as much as I’d like to, and I think that’s a common story that a lot of LINA members would have. “

Stuchbery said the plethora of online resources offered by LINA, on subjects from grant applications to audience engagement to setting up a digital newsroom, were intended to support news initiatives such as Brunswick Voice and The Rotunda.

It’s a strategy that appears to be working, and there are now 192 newsrooms supported by LINA across the nation, many via digital platforms that offer a lower barrier to entry than print journalism and other traditional media.

“It’s exciting, because otherwise, those stories are not being shared,” said Stuchbery.

With the number of LINA-supported newsrooms continuing to grow, Stuchbery said green shoots were beginning to emerge in the wake of sustained local newspaper closures across Australia.

“Where people can fill a [news] gap, digital provides an opportunity to do that and it's also an accessible way for people to get that news for the most part,” she said.

“What LINA does is try to provide pathways for people to really make that a sustainable business.”

Phillips echoed her words.

“There is a real movement [of publishers] emerging and it's exciting to be at the start of something where it’s coming from the grassroots up. It’s actually being driven by people in the community.”

McGhee said local newsrooms not only were important for the communities they serve, but played an integral role in building the foundational skills of journalists.

“As a young journo, what I think you learn working in a smaller newsroom in one of those local areas is about your community and what matters to them,” she said.

“It gives so many young journos their first crack in the industry, but I also think it makes for better journalism for all of us when you’ve got young journos connected to place and the people who live there.”

More information

Hyperlocal news outlets give communities back their voice

Good news for local journalism