Does local journalism need saving? We opened the week with that loaded question because, frankly, there’s been a whiff of despondency in the air. It’s mildly nauseating when you’re looking at a room full of journalism students who still want to believe the job matters.

Local journalism used to be the beating heart of the trade. It was where reporters cut their teeth, knocking on doors along the high street, sitting through council meetings, learning which pub landlord knew everything and which councillor knew nothing but would talk anyway.

But the numbers make for grim reading. Press Gazette reports roughly 300 local newspapers have shut in the past two decades. The UK’s biggest local publishers, Newsquest, Reach and National World, employ a fraction of the staff they once did.

It’s tempting to conclude local journalism is circling the drain, and that the local reporter belongs alongside the paper boy and the milkman in the museum of fondly remembered professions.

But most of our journalistic heroes began on patch before ascending to the national stage. Without local journalism, is the career ladder now an amputee? Who holds power to account at council level? Who tells us about the bench that cost £20,000 and can’t be sat on, the bank closing after 143 years, or the neighbourhood fury over yet another housing development?

These stories rarely trend nationally. But Ben Lynch of MyLondon, part of the BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service, says they give people a real sense of place. Good local journalism comes from people who understand their patch and, by extension, help define it.

And in an age of both mendacious and misled information, local journalism cuts through the noise, says Simon Murfitt, Senior Editor at Newsquest London.

With that in mind, we doubled down on local reporting this week. We resisted the easy slide into London stories that become national by proxy, and instead scoured the four corners for our toplines.

This week’s output is coverage, certainly. But it’s also a reflection on how to find and frame local stories in a digital age, and what the future of local journalism actually looks like.

Our verdict is simple. Local journalism doesn’t need saving, but it is changing shape. Economics are tighter, workflows more hybrid, and routes to audience increasingly dependent on platforms and subscriptions rather than print runs.

Make no mistake, the old-school skillset still matters. Ben Lynch still reads council papers. He still works the phones. On the afternoon we spoke, he’d been in Fulham chasing one lead and came back with three more.

But today’s frugal media landscape can’t sustain the army of reporters it once did. In response, Simon Murfitt is blunt: modern local journalists must adapt. Embrace multimedia, social engagement and emerging tech like AI, without letting any of it become a crutch.

So what defines a good local journalist now?

Discipline, for a start. Stay rooted in your patch, not through lack of ambition, but because you understand your role. Chase national attention and you risk eroding trust and diluting what makes local outlets distinctive.

Then there’s curiosity, judgement and confidence, or at least a convincing version of it. Whether knocking on doors or doing the digital equivalent, nothing replaces the people skills that build trust and get you beneath the surface.

As editor of this week’s digital newsday, I’d add one more: resilience. Local journalism is often a game of closed doors and unanswered calls. The only move is to keep knocking.

Tune in to this afternoon’s explainer to hear how our persistence paid off. For now, happy Thursday. Enjoy the local content, and go buy your local paper.

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