How to fund quality local journalism

The following is the final instalment of a 6-part series of responses to the government inquiry into the future of local and regional media published on the OnlineJournalismBlog. We will be submitting the whole - along with blog comments - to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. This last post, by Lecturer in Journalism Alex Lockwood, looks at:

“How to fund quality local journalism”

The bottom has fallen out of the traditional publishing business model–and with it goes the hefty dividends expected by shareholders (e.g. £48.4m in 2008 for the Trinity Mirror Group). The future of local quality journalism can only remain with the current crop of regional newspaper publishers if they radically change their expectations, and innovate.