Local media is making a recovery - and PR is missing out if it doesn't connect with the regions
Analysis: Regional publications and broadcasters are seeing a recovery - new titles, millions coming to websites and digital subscriptions
The media landscape is changing at pace – and keeping up with the latest developments and moves will give every comms expert an advantage over their rivals. Every week we will take a look at the media business from mainstream and ‘legacy’ media to cutting edge tech and the latest trends and developments – and how you can use that know-how.
Once they were a force to be reckoned with.
The Manchester Evening News (MEN), Liverpool Echo, Western Daily Press, Birmingham Post, Northern Echo – and of course my local as a Leeds lad, the Yorkshire Post. Beasts of the regional press.
It was of course a time where many households would buy two papers – a local and a national. And the circulation figures in the 1960s and 1970s were phenomenal. The Wolverhampton Express and Star, the Birmingham Mail, the MEN and others sold half a million copies each.
Since then they have struggled, hit by the same tailwinds as the national press of falling circulation and rising costs. The Yorkshire Post now has one of the largest regional print circulations of around 8,000 copies a day.
But there is plenty of reason to think that the regional media might just be starting to enjoy a renaissance – and it’s a trend that the comms experts might be able to take advantage of.
Because while print remains challenging for publishers, local media is showing plenty of fight online.
I was at the Society of Editors awards at the end of last year and among the winners were a string of regional journalists and publications that are making a difference to their communities. Whether it is a local investigations, in depth sport, environmental coverage or good old fashioned local politics, publishers and local TV and radio are producing some of the best journalism in the country.
In difficult times, there are also signs that local media is making it pay as well. The MEN has a monthly audience of 12m people (the biggest regional site in the country) and reckons it reaches more than half the adults in the city at least once a month. It’s not perfect – Google’s algorithms tend to favour global titles over local media on breaking news – but it shows that local people are interested in local news.
Interestingly, Reach’s new subscription model has launched with the MEN and Liverpool Echo rather than one of its national titles. And Newsquest and Iconic (formerly National World) have also introduced paywalls for their best content. The MEN’s editor said early sign-ups have been “ahead of expectations” showing there is an appetite for local content.
And away from the big groups, there is independent media which is flourishing and proving that readers are willing to pay for original, well-researched local stories – including titles such as the Mill in Manchester, the Waltham Forest Echo, the Brixton Blog and ex-Guardian journalist Jim Waterston’s Londoncentric on Substack.
So, what’s it mean for the PR industry?
