Local Recall lets users ask questions about past events, access archived stories and hear responses from voice-activated devices such as Google Home. Archant’s Chief Client Officer Lorna Willis says the team of volunteers has created “one of the most advanced voice infrastructures in the UK” by manually digitising damaged archives that even the most advanced scanners could not achieve. 

Archant is freely offering Local Recall technology to competitors. Its long-term goal is to see other publishers use the tool for their own content. As Willis sees it, “If local content isn’t available where people want it, when they want it, we’re planning the collective demise of local news publishing.”