BBC Local news stories online in England have increased by over a fifth according to the latest audience figures.
BBC local radio has recently seen some of its programming funding diverted into investment in local online journalism across the week, which is one of the reasons for the increase in traffic. Some big local stories also helped with the increase, as did more frequent updating of stories across many areas.
There has been more use of live pages for the big stories across local communities and greater prominence on the BBC News app.
The number of unique browsers accessing the BBC’s local news stories each week has seen a 21% increase over the last 3 months compared to the same period last year.
In the period July-Sept 2023, an average 14.8m unique browsers each week accessed BBC Local stories in England – up 2.6m on the same period last year (21%), and 1.4m(10%) on the previous quarter.
Jason Horton, Director of Production – BBC Local, said “These figures are testament to the hard work and dedication of our news teams across BBC Local. We talk about delivering great local value for all and now we are really showing how we can deliver it.
“As we continue to roll out with new Local Story Teams and our Investigative Teams the early signs of growth are really encouraging and there is more positive news to come.”
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