New local news services and expanded reporting are planned by radio broadcasters receiving grants from the government’s £6 million Local News Fund.
Get Radio in Oxfordshire has been allocated £125,000 to build an independent local news service, with a locally based journalist and a team developing the journalism and its commercial future.
Devoncast Radio’s operator, Exe Communicate Limited, receives £89,269 to launch a sister station dedicated to news, providing an always available broadcast channel alongside a greater focus on digital content.
SOAR SOUND CIC will receive £85,000 for the Leicester Local News Innovation Lab, a collaborative project to help community media organisations produce more relevant and accessible local journalism.
Rutland and Stamford Sound has been awarded £17,711 to extend its news services beyond live radio and strengthen its digital skills.
Cross Rhythms in Stoke-on-Trent is receiving £106,089 to develop its local news service digitally for Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
In Coventry, Vanny Radio has secured £75,000 for a multimedia community newsroom producing FM and digital bulletins, interviews, podcasts, short videos and online updates.
The awards form part of a £6 million fund benefiting 50 organisations across England and Wales. Grants to individual local media outlets are worth up to £125,000, while seven organisations developing infrastructure for the wider sector are receiving awards of up to £275,000.
Media Minister Ian Murray said: “Through the Local News Fund we are taking action to help newsrooms innovate and adapt their business models for the online world”.
The scheme is part of the government’s Amplify Local Media Action Plan, which also includes measures to introduce young people to careers in journalism and address the safety of journalists. Polly Curtis, co-chair of the fund’s steering board, said: “We want to thank everyone who applied and encourage applications to the next round in 2027.”
