This report summarises news content sampling undertaken in 2023. It includes the results of two new studies: a comparative sample of news production in the Eyre Peninsula, conducted in February and November 2023; and a study of court reporting conducted across regional New South Wales. 

The report found that:  

• Moderate to high levels of public interest journalism is published in most sampled areas.  
• Community coverage is frequently the largest category of public interest reporting while courts and crime coverage is almost always the least reported category.  
• Regional titles publish a higher proportion of local stories, while publications based in capital cities cover fewer local stories compared to state and national stories. 
• In the Eyre Peninsula there has been moderate change since the region’s two newspapers were acquired and brought into the same editorial structure. Government reporting declined as community reporting increased.  
  • Geographies of coverage in this very remote region of South Australia remained remarkably consistent after the merger, however, with reporting occurring in every local government area sampled. 
• Most court reporting in regional New South Wales locations sampled is conducted by major news media. There was little to no evidence of court reporting at the majority of independent media outlets. 
• Court stories mostly covered plea hearings in Local Court. Most outlets primarily covered violent crime. 
• In one region, Broken Hill, there were no court reports published across the entire sampled month.