UK Hyperlocal & Independent News Directory

The independent and hyperlocal sector is the part of UK news that is easiest to overlook and hardest to catalogue. Its outlets are small, often run by one or two people, frequently constituted as community interest companies or co-operatives rather than conventional publishers, and they change names, domains and formats more often than the national groups do. They are also, in many places, the only reporters left in the council chamber.

This page does two things. First, it lists outlets across all four nations that we have checked individually. Second, it explains the structures around them — the sector body, the BBC-funded reporting scheme they can draw on, the review that framed the policy debate, and the charity funding parts of the sector — because those four things account for most of how the sector is currently financed and represented.

For the practice of this beat rather than the map of it, see Hyperlocal Journalism. For the national groups and broadcasters, see the Newsroom Directory and Broadcaster Directory.

The sector body: ICNN

The Independent Community News Network is the representative body for independent community and hyperlocal news in the UK. It is hosted by the Centre for Community Journalism at Cardiff University, and the Cardiff University registered charity number appears in the footer of every ICNN page. ICNN states that it represents more than 120 news organisations spanning all four nations.

ICNN publishes a public member list as an interactive map, which is the source for the outlets on this page. Its membership criteria are the closest thing the sector has to a definition: independence from political, commercial and religious interests; at least six months of active coverage; a geographic area or an online community of interest rather than a single campaign, party, issue or sports team; a prominently displayed complaints procedure; adherence to either the Editors’ Code of Practice or the Impress Standards Code alongside the NUJ Code of Conduct; transparent ownership; and original journalism rather than aggregation. Applications are approved by a Professional Standards and Admissions Committee.

ICNN also issues its own membership identification cards to members. That is a distinct thing from an industry press card — for the recognised UK press card schemes and who gatekeeps them, see UK Press Cards.

The directory

A selection with deliberate geographic spread, not the full ICNN membership. Descriptions are drawn from each outlet’s own site. We do not publish founding dates, staff numbers or audience figures, because those are the claims that go stale fastest and are hardest to verify from outside.

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

London

England (outside London)

How the sector is funded and supported

The Cairncross Review (2019)

The Cairncross Review, published in February 2019, was a government-commissioned review of the sustainability of high-quality journalism in the UK. It made nine recommendations, among them a news quality obligation on the large online platforms, direct funding for public interest news, tax reliefs for public interest journalism, and a new institute for public interest news. The government responded in January 2020 saying it fully accepted the analysis and supported almost all of the recommendations. The package was not implemented as a whole, so Cairncross is best read as the framing document for the current policy argument rather than a description of what exists.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service and the Local News Partnerships

The LDRS is the single largest intervention in local public interest reporting in the UK. The BBC describes it as a public service news agency: funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector, and used by qualifying partners. The reporters are funded by the BBC under its Charter commitment but employed by the regional news organisations that hold the contracts, and they report to the contract holder rather than to the BBC. The BBC states that the scheme created up to 165 reporter posts across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that their copy is shared with more than 1,100 media titles and outlets signed up as Local News Partnerships partners.

This matters for independent outlets because partner status is open to them. The BBC says the partnership is open to news organisations targeting an audience typically located in a specific geographical area no greater than a single UK nation, or targeting a BAME community of the UK, subject to a track record of public service journalism, consistent coverage of public institutions and civic life, standards referenced to the BBC Editorial Guidelines and the Editors’ Code, and a robust complaints process. Several outlets in the tables above run LDRS bylines alongside their own reporting. Our LDRS guide covers the scheme in detail.

The Public Interest News Foundation

PINF is a registered charity in England and Wales — charity number 1191397, company number 12320800 — which describes itself as the UK’s only charity working to regenerate local news. It says it works with over 100 local, independent, public interest news providers across the UK, and it runs a Local News Fund, a Local News Campaign and a Local News Futures programme, alongside a Local News Commission and Indie News Week. It publishes the PINF Index, a survey of independent news providers with editions from 2021 to 2025, and a map of local news providers. For outlets seeking grant funding or sector research, PINF is usually the first stop.

Frequently Asked Questions