No at-scale, independent financing instrument for local public-interest news
PINF's December 2025 Local News Report counts 4.4 million people living in news deserts across 37 districts, 27 with no outlet at all and 10 with limited coverage, concentrated in deprived and diverse areas. The BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service runs about 165 reporters on roughly £8m a year and has no guaranteed future amid £500m of BBC cuts and Charter review. DCMS's Amplify plan offers £6m in 2026-27 and up to £6m the year after. PINF's own Local News Fund is philanthropic and small. Google's estimated £2.2bn of UK news-derived revenue goes uncaptured, and charitable status for journalism remains legally awkward enough to deter foundation funding.
Local news is the accountability layer for the devolution agenda. New strategic authorities, mayors and neighbourhood boards will spend billions with fewer reporters watching. The evidence links news provision to local service performance and civic participation, and the deserts map onto the deprived areas receiving Pride in Place money.
An independently governed Local News Fund at £30–50m a year, financed by a platform levy or negotiated platform contributions with philanthropy alongside. The Local Democracy Reporting Service would be protected and expanded in the BBC Charter settlement, extending reporters to courts and NHS bodies. Clarification from the Law Commission or Charity Commission would make public-interest journalism a charitable purpose.
// State-led: Instrument: platform levy legislation plus BBC Charter LDRS settlement; philanthropy-plus-platform-contributions fund possible earlier but not at-scale.
Devolution scales up while the reporting layer thins, the live BBC Charter review decides the reporting service's fate, and no at-scale independent financing exists for the deserts.
One gap, several dossiers: entries folded into this one (1)
The research pass surfaced this gap independently in more than one domain. Those entries are merged here so the map counts it once: the same arm's-length news fund financed by platform levy plus philanthropy, with LDRS reform.
№ 149 · No independent funding institution for public-interest news (Funding (lens))
The Cairncross Review (2019) recommended an Institute for Public Interest News with an innovation fund (~£10m/yr); government rejected the institute on press-freedom grounds and delivered a one-off £2m Future News Fund pilot. The Public Interest News Foundation carries fragments of the role at sub-£1m scale. The BBC's Local Democracy Reporting Service funds ~165 reporters, with ~90% of contracts going to the three dominant corporate publishers rather than independents.
Its fill: An independent, endowed public-interest news fund at arm's length from government (capitalised by a Digital Services Tax slice, platform levy or foundation consortium), regranting to independent local and investigative outlets, plus reform of LDRS procurement to open contracts beyond the big three publishers.