What happened to local news?

April 11, 2026 - 07:07 UTC

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The internet happened. The local press was vital in ensuring transparency & accountability in Govt.

The behaviour/decisions of parish, district, county & national politicians were all subject to regular scrutiny.

But readers & advertisers all gravitated to the web and democracy paid the price.
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Nigel Farage unveils 'vote reform get Starmer out' slogan

😉
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Reach happened, I think ...
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To give them the very little credit they deserve, Reach don’t tend to favour one party as explicitly as this. It’s Newsquest, the second-rate Reach

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_published_by_Newsquest
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The Greens have the opportunity to do the funniest thing..
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It’s all owned by Reach (Retch) according to Private Eye!
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Disgraceful
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One thing I can't understand.
Why doesn't Labour run a simple campaign highlighting all Farages lies and bad judgement calls.
Make it all about Reforms greatest strength and weakness...Farage
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Deform voters don't care, it's all about the so called boats.
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To be fair, regional newspapers have always taken the same national news feeds, and you will find similar along the lines of 'Starmer unveils/Badenoch unveils'
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Same thing that happened to local politics.
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Buy the media. Manufacture consent.
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Thank goodness there are no echo chambers on social media.
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Not all local news is as bad as that, which is why I suspect planted advertorial and bung.
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It pays better to print whatever the guy with the money says to
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They just want headlines so that idiots buy local papers.
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Clickbait. Drives traffic to and around their sites so they can show big numbers to advertisers and pull in their money. It’s no longer about actual news and keeping the reader informed.
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Exactly.
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Paid articles
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It became local Newsquest:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_published_by_Newsquest?wprov=sfti1 href="/search?t=posts&q=">#
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NewsQuest are owned by USA Today Co.
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Bought and paid for
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They are all literally platforming Deform. So to promote themselves some more, Deform are pretending to be critical of these rags but are actually being promoted by them. That's whats really happening here.
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To be fair this is not a new thing; local news has been cut to the bone over the last 20 years. It's more likely that these various 'local' outlets are merely printing press releases verbatim than overtly favouring one party...
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