The hollowing out of local newspapers Journalistic performance decline and content homogenisation at a major UK publisher via @simonabisiani.bsky.social @agnesgulyas.bsky.social @bheravi.bsky.social h/t @joshih.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

We’ve just rolled out the biggest update to the @publicinterestnews.org.uk Local News Map (map.publicinterestnews.org.uk) to date! We have added a whole new set of features and tabs. I will unpack some here below 🧵👇

🚨 Our Digital News Report 2026 is out! Authored by Jim Egan, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Nic Newman, Rasmus Nielsen, Mitali Mukherjee and Richard Fletcher, it is based on 100K interviews in 48 markets Full report reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news... 7 findings in thread

I love Gantt charts as a mean to track and communicate progress. Incredible feeling seeing all my PhD research objectives becoming "Complete", with only one final row left to convert!

A historic moment for local journalism in the UK: direct state funding is finally happening. I’m especially glad to see: - up to £12m going to local media through a new fund; - my research for @publicinterestnews.org.uk cited along the way. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/r...

New UK state funding of up to £12m for local media

The Government will pay up to £12m funding to local media outlets over the next two years to support innovation and help fill "news deserts".

pressgazette.co.uk

FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatens broadcast licenses over Iran War coverage

were you dreaming of a UK local news map that shows you local news outlets by constituency? dream no more. await release. I am working on a development version of the map project by the Public Interest News Foundation. #uk #localjournalism #map #localnews

this is literally why I am doing a phd on the impact of media ownership consolidation on local news proximity

On the Media@onthemedia.bsky.social · 5mo ago

When a train crashed in Minot, N.D., and a noxious cloud of ammonia gas spread across town, there was no one at the radio stations to sound the alarm and inform residents. "This is just a glaring example of a media system that has no allegiance to local communities,” said @victorpickard.bsky.social.

My current research method: hourly ethnographic observation of the “submission status” of my manuscript in the journal submission portal.

1) New! The latest data on local news outlets in the UK, mapped! www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/blog/local-n... 📍

Local news launches, closures, and the state of play in 2025

We’ve launched our latest report into the state of local news provision across the UK. In this post, Joe Mitchell, PINF’s deputy director, explains why we do it and shares some of the key findings.

publicinterestnews.org.uk

The 2025 UK Local News Report from the @publicinterestnews.org.uk is out! We analysed 18 months of changes in the local news ecosystem, mapped news deserts etc. Bonus: we looked at demographic data + LDRS. Report, interactive charts and data here: www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/blog/local-n...

Local news launches, closures, and the state of play in 2025

We’ve launched our latest report into the state of local news provision across the UK. In this post, Joe Mitchell, PINF’s deputy director, explains why we do it and shares some of the key findings.

publicinterestnews.org.uk

Community, I need your help! I'm looking for software / python or R package to parse digitised newspapers and automatically detect / segment & extract articles (pictures not so important). does anyone have any tips? please reshare with your network if you have access to the wide CH/CSS community!

The 2025 English Indices of Multiple Deprivation came out today! Updating all my models on the relationship between local news provision and the various dimensions of deprivation. Meanwhile, here's some viz for the nerds: www.datawrapper.de/_/AW9I8/ www.datawrapper.de/_/lNZMS/

Next year I will finish my phd. I’m looking for perspectives on what paths people take afterwards within academia. What did you get up to after the phd? Do you have any tips for finding and applying to positions in Europe and North America (as a European?) I am also keen on writing grant proposals.

Are you interested in local journalism research? Next Friday we are having a free online webinar bringing together a premium selection of UK-based industry leaders, policymakers, journalists, and academics to explore how research can shape the future of local media. Check the link for more!

83% of local nonprofit news organizations have increased revenue growth by at least 10% over the last three years, compared to 71% of state and regional publications and 76% of national and global outlets.

Nonprofit news is growing strong — especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows

Nonprofit news outlets of all types are enjoying revenue growth — but those that focus specifically on local news, rather than state, national, or global news, are doing especially well, according to…

niemanlab.org

Professor Agnes Gulyas approached me to work on a report drawing from academic research on local media to signpost priority directions for industry and policymakers working to make this industry sustainable and protect the value it brings to communities and society. Report is out!

i've written a short blog about how to quickly prototype prompts in openai and use them programmatically. used this workflow today to speedup a manual research task.

I Spent $11 to Hire an AI model as a Researcher Digging into Newspaper Buyouts

Here's how I did it, and what I found

open.substack.com

Late night tales from your one and only.

How Local Is Local News? And Does it Matter?

I'm asking you.

open.substack.com

academic dopamine hit: two papers accepted by @comphumresearch.bsky.social this week 📚 journal article on LLMs for toponym resolution and conference paper on deriving a typology of subnational media based on coverage spatial properties. off to Luxembourg in December to present :) links to come!

Last night, I wrote on The Local News Cartographer about my early phd work on building a database of all local news outlets in the UK. One year of research inside a 10(?) minute read. Learn the perks and pain of gathering your own phd data.

How I accidentally spent one year building a database about local news outlets

The PhD detour that might help track Britain's local news crisis?

open.substack.com

incredible dry humour by AI summarising what it’s like to end up in a local news merger operation.

Yep, I'm on Substack: to make my research accessible and useful, I'll translate my work into digestible posts that explain how I study the local news market at scale, through text mining, to ask questions about media ownership, news deserts, and democracy: shorturl.at/q3VKI

Seeing David Lazer in the flesh at #ic2s2 in my habitual Norrköping feels surreal and moving to say the least.

Mobility and Urban Science 2 chaired by the one and only @lecoursonnais.bsky.social. #ic2s2 is off to a great start.

What an awesome past few days attending @dh2025lisbon.bsky.social and getting to see *oh so beautiful* Lisbon at the same time. Still on a high from @icwsm.bsky.social, I feel honoured and humbled to having the chance to be in the room with scholars I admire and learn from. @ic2s2.bsky.social next!

don’t these look pretty? when I did my MSc at @iasliu.bsky.social’s then-just-begun CSS program many of these early graduates were our (very friendly and patient) TAs. Nice to see what they were up to beyond dealing with us, and the pool of graduates from IAS growing.

To all my newfound connections at @icwsm.bsky.social coming to @ic2s2.bsky.social in beautiful Norrköping (p.s. I'll be around, hit me up to see the best bar + city gems), the wonderful @hendrik-erz.de at @iasliu.bsky.social has built a tool to get you on top of things when it comes to schedule!

Hendrik Erz, PhD@hendrik-erz.de · last yr.

+++ NEW ARTICLE +++ I built an interactive schedule for my field's largest conference and, if you'd like to, yours, too! www.hendrik-erz.de/post/i-built...

So fulfilling to see the database I have built at the @publicinterestnews.org.uk being leveraged by @mediareformuk.bsky.social and the fantastic Tom Chivers for the 2025 edition of "Who Owns the UK Media?" To know more: www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/local-news-m...

Media Reform Coalition@mediareformuk.bsky.social · last yr.

🏚️ Decades of cuts, closures & corporate consolidation have left the UK's local media in ruins 3 publishers, Newsquest, National World & Reach, control 51% of local newspapers. These corporate giants also hold 8/10 of the publicly funded Local Democracy Reporter contracts

So excited to hit @icwsm.bsky.social conference with a dataset paper from my PhD research at @peoplecentredai.bsky.social. I will present tomorrow at @aau.dk in cyclist-friendly Copenhagen! Find me at the poster madness session in the afternoon!