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IFNC good news for hyperlocal movement in the UK

25th March 2010 by William Perrin

The preferred bidders for the Independently Funded News Consortia will receive government money to provide a new type of local news in the UK.  The government process is almost unique in the world – intelligent action and innovation rather than handwringing or thoughtless subsidy for more of the same.

The government said of the IFNC that:

‘…They will be able to deliver a broader local and regional news offering through multi-platform delivery. A contestable selection process will extend the base of content providers and increase the scope of innovation, quality and journalistic diversity.’

As a member of the selection panel comprising people from the full breadth of the media industry, I was delighted (and a bit surprised) to see traditional newspaper publishers, TV and radio companies making a big effort to understand hyperlocal publishing, the motivations of the people who do it and the contribution to the news process.
The winners are large media groups that demonstrate a good understanding of the potential for bottom up, grass roots hyperlocal news in the future news environment.  Each of the awards will emerge differently but we should see a far greater inclusion of hyperlocal sites in the local news ecology and thus an enhanced local (as opposed to just regional) news service and greater plurality all around. The IFNC process should give hyperlocal publishers a seat at the table, in many cases for the first time.  The public should see better telly, better papers (better radio in some cases) and better local internet.

The challenge for the IFNC bidders is to use the space the IFNC subsidy and cross media freedom gives them to understand, manage and harness the radical cross platform changes happening to local news – some outlined brilliantly by Alan Rusbridger in his Cudlipp lecture.  Whatever government the nation has after the impending general election this learning of how change works in practice will be vital to the future health of our media.

These are my personal views reflecting on the process today – for the definitive statement please see the government’s statement on the DCMS website.

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William Perrin
Founder of Talk About Local, Trustee of the Indigo Trust, Tinder Foundation, 360Giving, co-founder Connect8, former member of UK Government transparency panels, former Policy Advisor to UK Prime Minister, former Cabinet Office senior civil servant.Open data do-er, Kings Cross London blogger. Loves countryside. Two small children.
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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: General ultralocal or hyperlocal stuff, hyperlocal, IFNC, independently funded news consortia

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  1. uberVU - social comments says:
    25th March 2010 at 12:01 pm

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by willperrin: blog post on the #IFNC and the #hyperlocal movement in the UK http://bit.ly/9laXkL…

  2. Tweets that mention IFNC good news for hyperlocal movement in the UK | Talk About Local -- Topsy.com says:
    25th March 2010 at 5:52 pm

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Josh Halliday, Nico Fell, good, Talk About Local, Talk About Local and others. Talk About Local said: Latest on #TAL: IFNC good news for hyperlocal movement in the UK http://ow.ly/16SZ2v […]

  3. Grant Gibson » We won the regional TV news bid for Scotland! says:
    26th March 2010 at 9:56 am

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  4. 1000Flowers conference: Some thoughts « David Higgerson says:
    8th November 2010 at 6:41 pm

    […] fit in. Prior to the general election, Labour’s solution to independent local TV news was the Independently Funded News Consortia, which would have seen various media parties come together to produce the bulletins we currently […]

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