Image: Issue 3 of the Leicester Gazette’s print edition on delivery day. Photograph: Devon Winters
Fifty local news providers were awarded grants of up to £125,000 to support long-term sustainability and growth during the UK’s Journalism Matters Week in November – including several co-operatives and members of the Independent Media Association.
The funding aims to recognise “the vital role of local media in communities across the country”, while “ensuring people can benefit from trusted, high-quality local journalism, while strengthening communities and social cohesion, rebuilding social trust, and supporting local growth”.
Media Minister Ian Murray said: “For decades, our local media has remained among the most trusted sources of news. But as the media landscape has become more complex, many outlets have been forced to reduce their numbers or even close. I am determined not to leave local journalism to collapse. This government knows it is critical to communities and fosters a self-confident nation that everyone feels part of.
Among the recipients were worker- and reader-owned Leicester Gazette, community-owned Bristol Cable and Lewisham-based local news co-op, Salamander News. All three are members of the IMA; other IMA members who received grants include Bylines Network, Tower Hamlets Slice and The Stray Ferret. These six alone secured a combined £630,000.
The Bristol Cable was awarded the maximum £125,000 for a six-month digital growth programme, which will bring specialist audience expertise into the co-operative as it moves towards a social-first publishing model and develops new ways of converting readers into paying supporters.
The Leicester Gazette received £81,999 to launch a membership offer, alongside a website redesign, a relaunched newsletter and a series of community listening workshops. The funding has already allowed the Gazette to take on five part-time team members, with its December print run rising to 10,000 copies and appearing in Leicestershire supermarkets for the first time.
“For IMA members, the awards show that independent, community-rooted publishers can compete for and win public funding, and that the infrastructure being built by members could soon benefit the wider network,” said the IMA.
For the Leicester Gazette, the funding is “a welcome opportunity to strengthen our membership offer and build closer relationships with the communities we serve,” said strategy and projects lead, Rhys Everquill. “We want to make it easier for readers to support local journalism and give them more ways to engage with the stories, people and issues that matter across Leicester.”
Membership editor, Emma Guy, added: “It represents the biggest investment in the Leicester Gazette to date. We’re eager to use it to serve our community and continue producing the local journalism our readers expect.
“As a local newspaper on a shoestring budget, we’re committed to making this funding go as far as possible. Growing our membership is an important part of that.”
Dorothy Francis, who was elected a director of the Gazette in 2023,” said: “I’ve been blown away by the team’s dedication to serving the community. This funding has been well-earned [and] represents not only an investment in the Gazette, but a vote of confidence in the team. I have no doubt everyone will make the absolute most of it.”
