Government Opens £12 Million Local News Fund to Help Save Local Journalism

The government has opened a competitive bidding process for a £6 million Local News Fund, the first instalment of what could become a £12 million programme over two years. Local news outlets across England and Wales can now apply for grants to invest in digital innovation and the tools they need to become more financially sustainable with a deadline of 7 August 2026 at midday.

The Fund is part of Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan, published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in March 2026. It is the government's most significant direct intervention in the local news sector since at least the 2019 Cairncross Review, which first identified what it described as a market failure in the provision of public interest local journalism.

The £6 million available in 2026/27 is divided into two separate funding streams, each with its own application process and eligibility criteria.

Local News Outlet Funding (LNOF)

Three quarters of the fund, around £4.5 million is reserved for local news outlets:

• Who it is for: Local news organisations based in England or Wales, operating in print, online, radio or TV
• Maximum grant: £125,000 per organisation
• What it can fund: Innovation projects, audience development tools, new content formats, CMS upgrades, AI tools used responsibly, revenue diversification, newsroom upskilling
• National broadcasters excluded: Regional or local services operated by the BBC, ITV and S4C are not eligible
• Consortia allowed: Multiple local outlets can submit a joint bid, with one organisation acting as lead applicant

Infrastructure Funding (IF)

The remaining 25%, around £1.5 million targets organisations building shared tools or services that benefit the wider local news industry:

The eligibility requirements for the Local News Outlet stream are more specific. Organisations must meet all of the following conditions to be considered.

Eligibility Conditions

To qualify, local news outlets must demonstrate:

Payment Arrangements

The government's preferred method is payment in arrears. However, for smaller organisations that cannot front costs, upfront payment is available provided the applicant can demonstrate, via a signed confirmation from an independent chartered accountant, that their unrestricted cash reserves are less than 25% of the grant value they are seeking.

The Fund comes against a backdrop of decades of decline in the local news industry. The figures in the government's own Local Media Action Plan are striking.

News Deserts and Closures

The scale of local journalism's decline in the UK:

What Qualifies as a News Desert?

The government's definition is areas where no print, online, TV or radio outlet is dedicated specifically to covering that local authority district. According to a DCMS Community Life Survey cited in the Action Plan, 10% of adults in England were not aware of a local news provider serving their area.

In the second year of the Fund, DCMS will identify candidate news desert locations and invite existing publishers to expand into them, revive dormant titles, or support the creation of new community owned outlets. That process has not yet begun.

Applications are assessed in two stages. A technical review is conducted by the Government Grants Managed Service, which checks eligibility and completeness. A strategic assessment is then carried out by an independently appointed Local News Fund Steering Board.

The Steering Board

The eight member board was announced in June 2026 following an open recruitment process. It is co-chaired by:

• Jeremy Clifford: Executive media consultant and co-chair, previously at JPI Media and Archant
• Polly Curtis: Chief Executive of Demos and co-chair, previously at The Guardian, HuffPost UK and Tortoise Media
• Other members include: academics from Canterbury Christ Church University and Birmingham City University, a director from FT Strategies, and representatives from the News Media Association and the Independent Community News Network

The board's role is advisory, it provides strategic recommendations, but final decisions on grant awards rest with DCMS.

Media Minister Ian Murray MP said the Fund "marks an important step towards securing the future of local media across the UK" and called on publishers and innovators to submit "ambitious proposals." NUJ General Secretary Laura Davison welcomed the Fund as recognition that "the industry cannot be left to the vagaries of the market."

The Local News Fund sits within a broader strategic framework. Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan was published in March 2026 and sets out three overarching goals for the sector.

The Three Strategic Goals

The Action Plan is built around:

How to Apply

Applications are submitted online through the government's Find and Apply for a Grant service. Each application must include a completed Budget Management Tool and a Delivery Plan, both using government issued templates. Only one bid per organisation per funding stream is accepted, though an eligible outlet may submit one application to each stream.

• Fund opens: 7 July 2026, 12 noon
• Application deadline: 7 August 2026, 12 noon
• Grant award letters: Late September 2026
• Spending window: From signature of Grant Funding Agreement until 22 March 2027
• Queries: dcmslocalnewsfund@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

The Local News Fund is the largest direct government grant programme for local journalism in the UK to date, but ministers have been careful to frame it as the beginning of a longer process rather than a complete solution.

The £6 million available this year is modest relative to the scale of the challenge at the height of the industry, the three biggest local publishers alone employed nine times as many journalists as they do today. But the Fund introduces a competitive, evidence based mechanism for directing public money into local news, with a Steering Board of industry practitioners rather than civil servants making the strategic calls.

Whether the Fund delivers meaningful change will depend on how bids are structured, which projects are prioritised, and whether the second year of funding still described as "up to £6 million" materialises in full. Eligible publishers have until 7 August 2026 to make their case.