Talk at London Newsmakers at City Hall

The London Newsmakers, a new collective of independent news and journalism publishers from across London brought together by Tabitha Stapely and David Floyd, has invited me to be the opening speaker at their upcoming meeting on Thursday 28th November. What’s even more significant is that the meeting’s being hosted at City Hall, which – we have to hope – is a signal that the Mayor and the GLA are looking more closely at the state of quality information in our capital.

Here’s what I plan to talk about:

London’s news and information environment, like that in many major cities, is under extreme pressure – while the national media with HQs in London are perceived to be London-centric, in fact London’s communities are very unevenly served by a patchwork of local media, social media and civic information. Established publications and media outlets are scaling back to weekly or online only to stave off closing down, independent media can’t access funds or financing to stabilise or grow, and there are almost no funds available for new entrants or startups to develop new ways of reporting in, for and with communities across the capital. 

This is making information inequality worse across and between our communities – of course, this affects the watchdog and democratic functions of local media, but this also impacts on diverse and shared histories and identities, on arts and culture, on health, on inclusion, civic participation and empowerment, and on local economies. And it exacerbates the already large gaps between richer and poorer Londoners. This needs an organised, structural solution, based on real, long-term needs, and the Mayor and the GLA can help catalyse this.

There was an expectation that social media and ‘storytelling’, including from city or borough administrations, would help, but this has further exacerbated the challenges for healthy local information environments. We can no longer expect the market to deliver. No measures to help local media have been enacted, and as a result, the fabric of local media across the city is being decimated. Every day of delay on this issue brings more and more existing media closer to the brink, and once these close, no amount of reader-supported newsletters and podcasts or investor-backed social media-based startups, however welcome, will fill the void. For national policy-makers, the presence of national media and the lobbying of major local media groups has masked the true extent of the erosion of local media, in London as much as elsewhere in the country. 

The GLA and the Mayor can play (as they are with other cross-cutting challenges) a catalytic and convening role in bringing together diverse actors, all of whom are affected by the decline of local independent media. There are examples from around the world, and the country, of measures the Mayor and the GLA could take to support, catalyse and protect a new wave of media covering the city. Using their convening power, they could bring together and push for a collective, organised and innovative response from London Funders, businesses, civil society, the tech sector, investors, chambers of commerce, cultural organisations, public bodies, London-based national media, and others who understand the impact of the decline in local journalism on the lives of Londoners, who care about information integrity in the city, and who understand that reducing information inequality between our communities will help across a range of other goals.