This report examines how best to provide regional media with the resources it needs to produce quality public interest journalism, and, with that journalism, to establish links to metropolitan media, so that all Australians have a sense of what the significant issues facing regional dwellers are and how they can best be tackled by policymakers. 

The report includes: the results of surveys measuring the flow of regional news to metropolitan markets; and focus groups in both regional NSW and in Sydney to see what people most valued in the news media available to them.

Key findings

1. A steady decline in production of regional local news by metropolitan news outlets, in the number of stories, the types of issues covered, and where coverage is occurring.
2. Regional and metropolitan news audiences have different needs and interests, and any alignment between them has been impacted by contractions in regional media.
3. A review of select countries identified multiple models that could help to increase the sustainability of regional news businesses and the visibility of regional stories to metropolitan audiences.
4. Collaborative journalism, particularly around national issues that affect both multiple regional and metropolitan audiences simultaneously – such as water –could leverage the expertise of local media while providing both greater resources and prominence to regional issues.
5. Network journalism allows for a sharing of infrastructure, back-end processes and common journalism practices, as well as content, and could be developed in the Australian context to allow for a more efficient allocation of scarce resources.
6. News aggregation platforms, similar to those widely used in India, may provide a new pathway for reaching metropolitan audiences with regional stories.
7. Developing the not-for-profit media sector could see greater seed funding reaching newsrooms, particularly those with a social purpose and innovative production models.
8. Regional focus groups reported a level of mistrust of urban based media reporting from regional locations, whilst city-based participants reported little interest in the network’s reporting.