Regional audiences still want trusted local coverage that seeks accountability on issues that matter, but there are news outlets failing to deliver.

Australia's earliest local newspapers began by advocating for their communities and campaigning for roads and infrastructure to help build newly emerging cities and towns.

At times they would host public meetings and there would always be a strong editorial in every edition.

In 2025, the media landscape in regional Australia may look very different yet the desires of audiences remain fundamentally unchanged.

Research shows how important local news remains to rural and regional Australians - it's news that they trust. However, it's important that news producers are held accountable to local audiences, especially if they are benefiting from any type of government support to secure their sustainability.

There are those who pay lip service to local news, by badging themselves as the voice of their community for example, but deliver a news product that can be described as 'anaemic' at best leaving their audiences hungry for true public interest journalism.

The regional story

Rural and regional population trends are much like the state of the nation's local media - a tale of mixed fortunes.

Regional Australia Institute reports show the lure of regional living remains strong with 35.6 percent more people moving away from capital cities than shifting out of the regions.

However, some remote and rural areas have declined as residents move to bigger centres in search of better healthcare, education or employment opportunities.

Rural and remote areas also tend to be identified as disadvantaged in Australia, experience weaker digital connectivity and are generally home to older populations.

Those who make the move to small towns and cities are often attracted by the sense of community and connection that country life promises and in many ways, local news outlets are symbolic of this imagined ideal.

Local journalists can play an important role in providing essential information to keep people safe, strengthen the social fabric and reinforce community.

The changing landscape

Much like regional population trends, some cities enjoy a rich and vibrant news ecology while others are located in news deserts lacking a source of relevant, credible and reliable information.

For example, the town of Camperdown in Victoria with a population of almost 3,500 people has a journalistic presence on the ground and a local newspaper, while St George in Queensland with a similar population has no regular news provisions.

There are also some regional communities that receive tokenistic news coverage because they fall on the fringe of an existing news catchment area, making it hard to have any meaningful, regular journalistic presence.

Much is changing in a digital environment, from how we access credible information to how news is produced, including the rise of artificial intelligence.

However, there are still some things that remain constant.

Regional news audiences tend to be older and emotionally, culturally, socially and financially invested in the places their news outlet serves.

And local content remains king: people expect local journalists to understand their area and provide relevant information.

Yet local news is such a slippery concept - and doesn't always mean journalists living in the communities they cover.

It can also easily be hijacked by bigger corporations who spruik their local news credentials to generate advertising revenue or attract government support even when they do not deliver what local audiences expect or want.

There are other news producers - especially in the broadcast sector - hamstrung by government requirements to meet local content quotas for licence areas that stretch up to 900 kilometres in radius. This means a regular news presence on the ground in small communities can be almost non-existent.

Magazines or newsletters funded by local governments have also emerged to help address a news void but they don't produce public interest journalism that holds power to account or examines important social issues.

This has led to a rise in what might be described as 'anaemic news' - it has some heart by providing good community and general events coverage but lacks the iron or grit of public interest journalism that examines issues in depth, advocates for community and serves as a watchdog to those in power.

Regional audiences trust local news and see its importance in allowing them to participate in and feel like they belong to their local community.

Findings from a recent national survey of country news audiences suggest people would prefer such news was free and they continue to have a passion for the printed product, especially in smaller rural centres.

While some media companies and government initiatives to support local media have adopted a 'digital first' mandate to encourage a shift to digital, this swing remains gradual.

Australian Community Media for example, has announced it will reduce the number of printed editions to respond to rising digital circulation trends.

Yet other companies continue to invest strongly in printed news, with the Star News Group for example making strong investment in the sector.

The way ahead

Regional communities want more stories about people, their achievements and events. They want to be able to celebrate where they live.

Critically, they want that injection of iron - news media that advocates for a better deal for their communities, reporting that demands accountability and engages the public in conversation on local issues that matter.

These are not radical or new ideas, even if the way they may be realised has changed.

The digital environment creates opportunities to engage the community in meaningful, facilitated public conversations - away from the more argumentative and at times exclusionary enclaves of social media.

Collaboration between news producers to create these opportunities is an important way to advance these agendas and enhance the quality of local news across Australia.

The nation's main public broadcaster, the ABC, is examining how best to support sustainability through strategic partnerships in areas that need it most.

It is working with researchers at Deakin and Griffith universities to examine how it can support existing and new local news providers to serve audiences in vulnerable areas of the news ecosystem, including news deserts.

Early research has found that while many existing local news producers are protective of their patch, they will collaborate with others for the benefit of their audiences and to serve a public good.

That's good news for audiences looking for more news relevance and a little more oomph from their news providers.

Professor Kristy Hess specialises in the future of local news, media policy and audience engagement in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University.

She is the lead Chief Investigator of an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (LP220100053) exploring the role of the ABC in supporting local news sustainability and has also been funded by the ARC for past research looking at regional media (LP180100813).

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info.

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