Local news often serves as the primary source of community information and is a platform for civic participation. However, local news provision in regional Australia is declining, while audience needs are shifting. This study confirms a void in the provision of local news. The report includes key recommendations for the local news industry and stakeholders.

Where journalists live has implications for the public and for the health of democracy. This paper identifies in which electorates Australia’s journalists live and whether these electorates are inner-metropolitan, outer-metropolitan, provincial or rural. It finds that more journalists live in electorates classified as inner-metropolitan than outer-metropolitan, provincial and rural electorates combined.

A study of news media coverage of nine Victorian councils before and during the 2024 Victorian local government elections. It suggests that the editorial interest in and capacity to produce independent coverage of council elections remains high.

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.

This report focuses on two aspects of how to fund news: news business innovations and news subsidies. It provides a global perspective on current challenges facing the news industry and makes recommendations for government towards a sustainable future for news.