Survival on a small stage


Cash grants, support from readers and new ways of working are keeping small news outlets going, says Ruth Addicott


T


rying to ask a question to the first minister of Wales via Zoom with the tumble dryer going in the background was the least of Alan Evan’s worries when the pandemic struck. As editor of hyperlocal Llanelli Online, he


was wondering how they would survive. “We were going from month to month at times,” he says. Llanelli Online was unable to pay all staff from the end of March. The launch of a business directory had to be cancelled and attracting advertising was harder than ever. “We have always struggled with capital costs and sometimes when your main Mac breaks down you are left wondering where you will get the funds to replace it,” he says. Llanelli Online was fortunate to be one of 20 beneficiaries to receive a £60,000 Covid emergency fund grant in June from the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF). The £3,000 payment, designed to support small, independent news providers through the crisis, paid for new equipment and gave them a chance to refocus and plan new revenue streams. Beneficiaries ranged from the Star & Crescent in Portsmouth to Shetland News Online and Gal-dem, a print and digital publication sharing perspectives from women and non-binary people of colour. The list also included Emito, an online service for the UK’s Polish community, 5 Pillars, which covers British Muslim news and The Ferret, an award-winning investigative journalism platform in Scotland. The PINF received 89 applications in total and is fundraising to support more. On the Isle of Wight, online news service OnTheWight was also struggling. Editor Sally Perry says: “We watched the 14-plus years of hard work and dedication we’ve put into building the publication have the potential of falling apart. “Pretty much overnight, we had the prospect of the loss of thousands of pounds of expected income for the following months. Even areas we’d diversified into, such as job ads, collapsed.” “To keep overheads low, we – like many independent local


news organisations – operate virtual offices, meaning we didn’t qualify for the £10k-£25k grant from the UK


12 | theJournalist


government which is tied to paying business rates.” Neither did they qualify for the furlough scheme or other support. The workload, meanwhile, was multiplying, especially when the government announced it would trial the Test and Trace app on the island. Perry says: “The need to deliver reporting and headlines


that were not sensationalist or click-baity was even more important and we went to great lengths to check and double check ourselves before publishing. Seeing the government provide large-scale financial support to the corporate regionals but ignore independent media was confusing.” A week into lockdown, they decided to ask their readers


for support. “The strength of response was mind-blowing,” says Perry.


“Not only thousands of pounds in donations, but the heartfelt comments. It was a massive boost.” One donor said: “The work you do has completely changed


Community news success needs change of attitude


ALAN EVANS, editor of Llanelli Online, believes it will be hard for small news providers to survive unless attitudes change and hyperlocals are given a share of advertising from the NHS, local authorities and allowed to bid for public notices payments. “It is so nonsensical to


pay for a public notice in a newspaper that has no connection with the community, does not invest in the community and does not publish its weekly sales figures,” he says.


“It comes to something


when we are first at the scene of major incidents and these huge companies don’t have the decency to pay us for coverage or photos, preferring to ask social media users for them for free or opt for generic Getty images.” The Public Interest News


Foundation is calling for government support and is in talks with charitable trusts, foundations and big tech companies. Its executive director,


Jonathan Heawood, believes there are also potential funders outside the UK,


like in the US, where non-profit journalism is more developed. “I think small publishers


that are set in their ways and have a specific idea of how to do journalism, sell advertising and so on are going to struggle. “The ones that seem to be


doing well are the ones that are hungry for new ideas and willing to experiment. “The virtue of being


small is that you can be nimble. You can try things and, if they don’t work out, you can try something else two weeks later, which is harder for big corporates to do.


“I think people who are


taking those risks will be the ones who will get through this.”


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