The Bureau Local: Holding power to account
The Bureau Local is a not-for-profit network of journalists and tech experts who work together to find and tell stories that matter to local communities.
While almost every reader survey concludes that local news is the most highly valued of all content, making it pay is another matter entirely.
“Monetisation is one of the biggest challenges and opportunities for local publishers,” says Christian Junker, Project Leader at Tagesspiegel LEUTE. “Here in Berlin, our goal was to provide original digital local journalism for the city’s 12 districts. Each of these is actually the size of a city in its own right and has its own distinct local flavour, but is only served by publications that cover the entire Berlin area. The appetite for hyperlocal news is vast – the problem is how to use that to generate revenue.”
The appetite for hyperlocal news is vast – the problem is how to use that to generate revenue.
Support from the DNI Fund helped Tagesspiegel LEUTE increase subscribers by 40%, which has in turn enabled it to invest in the business – for example, by employing a dedicated journalist for each of the 12 districts. The DNI Fund’s contribution also enabled the team to develop a self-service ad portal for small and medium-sized local businesses. “This is what makes the project work from a financial perspective,” adds Christian. “Local businesses don’t have the capital to invest in citywide advertising, so instead they use our portal to create and place their messages where they’re most effective – in front of a highly targeted local audience.”
Telling local stories
La Voz de Galicia: Your local digest
Two projects which enable journalists to identify and publish stories that are most relevant to local audiences.
Local News Engine: Needles in haystacks
Local News Engine uses algorithms to generate leads for potential news stories from local data.Now complete, it is available to all via GitHub.
DNI Fund Report 2018
Explore this year's report to find out about projects that have been supported by the DNI Fund and the impact they’re having in newsrooms across Europe.