This report is the first of three over as many years investigating the impact of contraction of regional media in New South Wales on metro coverage of news and issues significant to Australia which originate in non-urban areas.

The Public Interest Journalism Initiative is collecting information about news producers from all around Australia. The Australian News Index is intended to help communities, researchers and policy-makers access and use their data.

The Public Interest Journalism Initiative is collecting information about print and digital local news producers from all around Australia. This map of local news producers is intended to help communities, researchers and policymakers see where local news is flourishing, and where it might be struggling.

This paper argues that there is evidence from overseas, and particularly the United States, to suggest that a not-for-profit news sector would increase media diversity and address market failure in commercially unviable practices like investigative journalism.

The Public Interest Journalism Initiative is documenting the changes in news production and availability around Australia, from media companies to mastheads, newsrooms and stations. The data being collected for this map is open for public use so that researchers, policy-makers and everybody with an interest in securing a future for public interest journalism have access...