Hello, this is Bbc News with shaun ley. The headlines former Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding has died at the age of 39, after being diagnosed with Breast Cancer last year. The head of one of prince charles� charities temporarily steps down after claims he helped secure an honourfor a major donor. Relatives of a female Police Officer in the Ghor Province of afghanistan have told the bbc that she has been killed by the taliban. Plans to overhaul englands social Care System are likely to be unveiled this week, amidst warnings that a rise in national insurance could provoke a very significant backlash. Now lets join now letsjoinjulian now lets join Julian Worricker for the media now lets Joinjulian Worricker for the Media Show. Hello. To tell the story of the uk more fairly and more equitably there need to be more reporting voices outside london. That seems to be the journalistic mood of the moment. The bbc in march announced plans to shift focus from the capital and i quote, in a commitment to better reflect, represent and serve all parts of the country. When Gb News launched it promised new voices from every part of the country, and to again quote, reach out to nonmetropolitan audiences beyond london and engagement in our national conversation. Well, the impact of covid and movements like Extinction Rebellion or black lives matter, those stories are better told if everyone has an equal stake in them, irrespective of where they live. So what does it mean to have a non London Bias when you are reporting the news . The market for producing local news is as tough as its ever been. So, how do you do it . Today we hear from four people about their new approaches to reporting across the uk. Let me introduce them to you. Lorna willis is in norwich and has been ceo of the regional and local News Publisher Archant since march. Nick mitchell is in edinburgh and he is editor of the new website nationalworld, a News Site by regional reporters. He is involved in a series of new City Websites and has previously from the scotsman. Ifan morganjones is in bangor and in 2017 founded nation. Com an English Language News Site in wales. Shazia ali is a journalist leading a new initiative for the Peoples Newsroom in swansea promoting diverse community led journalism. By way of introduction to each of you, perhaps a story thats currently at the top of your respective News Agendas delivered in a short and pithy way. Lorna willis, what is top of your agenda in norwichjust now . 0k. Top of our agenda in norwich would be the nhs in crisis, the nhs at the brink. We have three hospitals really struggling in terms of Waiting Lists at the moment i think pre covid we had 93 people waiting a year for nonessential operations. Thats now gone up to 12,008. So weve got three hospitals on the brink, as we would say. Nick mitchell at nationalworld, what are you concentrating on . Our top story at the moment is actually about the Vagrancy Act which is a very old piece of legislation, but which has been found that thousands of people are still being prosecuted under this piece of legislation which the Housing Secretary actually said six months ago should be abolished. There is some data which has been surfaced today. And something A Little Bit lighter weve also got the yorkshire banksy. We got a Video Report with a Street Artist making a bit of a name for himself in leeds, so theres a couple of things for us. Ifan morganjones, for you what is top of the agenda . Well, its the matter that the welsh governments are introducing ozone| Cleaning Devices to clean classrooms in wales and that has attracted lots of comments, not just from welsh media i but from Uk Media as well. Shazia, i know your newsroom is still very much in the making, but what are you concentrating on, despite that . Well, im excited to explore how the migrants have access to the vaccine. Weve seen Nhs England Release Information about how people dont need an proof of address or an id to register at gps yet there are still barriers and we need that information to get to the people that need it. We need journalists from those communities to advocate for that. Ok, thats a flavour of my four guests and the stories were looking at there. Lorna, tell us A Little Bit about archant. The titles and the regions that you cover. Archant, weve been around for about 170 years. We have around 50 Newspaper Titles of which four are daily titles, we cover east anglia, the southwest, herts and cambridgeshire, and a few local titles in london. And if there is a london centric view in the media world, how much damage do you say that does to what you are trying to do and indeed to the coverage of the uk as effectively as it could be done . I think to say it does damage is slightly strong. In terms of national coverage, national coverage is important, to bring stories to the agenda. Whats missing is that local voice. I mentioned the nhs as one of our lead stories, we talked about the nhs over the last 18 months. When we talk about the nhs we are talking our friends, families, our neighbours. Were talking about 12,000 people that will be impacted that we know. So when we talk about a story in a local newspaper i think a wonderful quote we had from a reader recently was actually the reason they like new local news is because we learned two or three things we didnt know about the community and how the national agenda is impacting us. But we also see two or three faces that we do know. So it brings it to life. And i think more than that, it allows people to have that voice. I think damage is too far. But i think the challenge is whether local communities feel that they are being heard. Because on your website you talk very much about building communities. And you would argue that regional print, onlinejournalism, plays a big part in that. Absolutely. I think particularly on a local level. We talked earlier about the bbc making a commitment particularly to local news. I think thats really a challenge in terms of, you look at bbcs impartiality clause, its very difficult for them to do what we do locally. 0urjob is to campaign for these local communities and fight for them. I dont believe you can do that with impartiality. An example of that is again talking about local hospitals, we have a hospital in Kings Lynn where the roof is falling down. Its being held up by over 200 poles. We are campaigning to save that hospital in a way that the bbc will never be able to bring that to life on that national agenda. So, while those national stories impact us, ourjob is to really translate those at a local level and allow those local communities to have a voice, and for us to campaign for them. Nick, tell us a bit more about nationalworld. This is a company that bought out Jpi Media at The End of last year. Again, A Little Bit like lorna, give us a sense of the titles that are currently in your portfolio. I obviously, Jpi Media is a Historicl Regional Publisher and was bought over by Nationalworld Plc at the turn of the year. There are approximately 150 Newspaper Titles across the uk that we operate. Ranging from the scotsman to the yorkshire post, the popplington post, i a real range of regional, national and local titles. I think the interesting thing i with what weve done this year since march is try to take a new approach with digital first, digital only publications. So nationalworld was the first. Of those to launch in late march. We are now five months in, just over five months, and are getting to the stage now where we are launching new City Brands across somej of the major cities in the uk. So, yeah, there is a lot of competition in the regional media but i think its an exciting time. And we are trying to do things A Little Bit differently. I want to talk more about those City Brands in a moment. But with the launch of nationalworld. Com, my understanding of that is that its a national News Site but the contributors are regional reporters. So, how does that change the flavour of what youre telling people . Its an interesting one. I think we are unique in the sense that we are a national News Brand but we are based right across the uk. So im in edinburgh, we have editors in the midlands, yorkshire, right across the country. So its not really the sense that we cover regional stories, we do pick up on regional stories. We cover the national News Agenda but i think we do it in a slightly different way. Were not in london, i we are not in that kind of bubble in london. I i think the fact that we are a part| of the Jpi Network as well gives us a bit more of a sense of whats going on across the country. And the issues that people really care about. So we have a really strong data and Investigations Team which was recently shortlisted for an award, and i think thati something we can use effectively when we are looking at regional inequality. One of the key things for us | is trying to expose examples of funding inequalities, whether its the arts, whether its issues with Leveling Up. We see this constant Rhetoric I of levelling up at the moment. |so we really want to try and get j behind the rhetoric on that line. I was struck again by your website challenging institutions cocooned in the Wealth And Grandeur of the capital political and cultural and including the media that dictate to the other parts of the nation. Thats a pretty strong charge. Yeah, we are nothing if not bold. I think that is a really confident approach to take. And its something that comes across in the content that we produce. The stories that we highlight and like i say, ithink the investigative side of things is really key to us. As i say, Data Journalism i is something that is a really effective tool for us, just to expose the facts behind what some of the politicians are saying. Ifan morganjones, with yours, nation. Cymru set up in 2017, again was there a frustration of London Centricity in your mind when this was devised . I dont think it was frustration, there was just an awareness that in wales we have had since 1999 our own national parliament, wed had a national parliament set up a 1999 but the media in wales remained relatively weak. The media in wales has always been weak for historical reasons of course. The relatively poor population in wales means that theres not much of a base for attracting advertising, and that has an impact on the strength of the commercial media in particular. And there was a feeling that i think the bbc in 2014 did a poll and discovered that half the population did not know at that time that the Health Service in wales was devolved to wales. Thats obviously changed now with the Coronavirus Pandemic but at the time that struck us in particular as being a democratic deficit. We had an under informed public in wales so we decided to set up this News Website in order to bring perhaps welsh politics to them in a more accessible way. Interesting, nick mentioned the pandemic. The pandemic from the Point Of View of what youre doing, im guessing is that because the uk as a whole got much more of a sense of the devolved powers of certainly Scotland and Northern Ireland and wales because each country was looking after its own Health Care up to a point. And we saw, for example, Mark Drakeford on national television much more than we would have normally. Did that make a difference to the way people were responding to what you were putting in front of them . We saw certainly an explosion of interest in our coverage about the time of the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic. It went up to A Million a month at this moment. I think thats been a direct impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic. I dont think anyone will say that the pandemic has been a positive thing, but i think that is certainly one Silver Lining that has come out of it, that there has been the fact that theres been much more interest in regional news and national news at a local level. Shazi ali, how much do the sentiments that youve heard from the other guests tap into some of the things that youre looking to do . There is something slightly different, the Peoples Newsroom was started by the bureau of investigativejournalism. That was an initiative to support the sustainability of community journalism. One of which i am running in swansea on behalf of east wales. They are the ethnic Minority Youth and support team. They support all different ethnic communities here in swansea and across wales. The idea behind our newsroom is to tell our own stories, its a newsroom built for and by ethnic minority communities. And its as shaping the narrative in a way that serves and respects us. I want to talk to A Little Bit later on about whats driving that. If you look back to your own consumption of the media in the past you would say it doesnt feel as if its told your story as much as it should have done, and its your chance to change that. Exactly that. Lorna, archant was bought by an Equity Firm last summer. And now youre looking to turn The Business around. But you faced hard times before that. We did. I think its been tough for all regional newspaper businesses. The language that we hear around regional Press Being in crisis is somewhere off the mark. I think that archant had been on a good trajectory for the last two or three years, in terms of the level of innovation that weve employed weve been struggling with a very heavy Pension Deficit. But beyond that Pension Deficit i think the level of innovation that this business has been showing, two years ago we started working very closely with google. On one hand theres always a pressure of Pension Deficit but suddenly we started working with google, and we had some Money In The Bank to invest and be given the space to innovate. As a result of the project, we built the most advanced Voice Infrastructure in terms of Uk Media. And were excited to be launching that over the next 18 months. Soto say hard times. Actually throughout covid, everybody had their story to tell, and it has been horrendous for everyone in The Businesses we look after, but actually, no, outside of the industry people look in and think wow, we work with a huge amount of talent every day. Its tough inside the industry but we have its tough inside the industry but we have a its tough inside the industry but we have a huge amount of fun. Challenging but extremely exciting. But somejobs did go . Absolutely. We reshape The Business, that was an inevitability. In Post Covid Weve reshaped The Business. One of the things was keeping journalists and thats what we done. And the older, more established Newspaper Titles and you have many in your stable, how much do they still matter when people are finding so many other sources of news . Especially younger people. Thats a great question. If i spoke to my neice, who is 18, she would tell me that news didnt matter to her at all. If i spoke to my parents or if i speak to my colleagues or people my age, they will tell me its absolutely critical. Soto various parts of our community the newspaper and our brands are absolutely critical. Remember, we still have areas that have terribly challenged broadband service. The only way in which people felt connected throughout covid was through the printed newspaper. Its incredibly important to our communities and important to our businesses and we are committed to keep delivering that service. Nick, you mentioned your City Websites. Give us a brief labour of those. We launched four recently. Manchester world, liverpool world, newcastle manchester world, liverpool world, Newcastle World manchester world, liverpool world, newcastle World And Manchester world, liverpool world, newcastle World And Tomorrow manchester world, liverpool world, newcastle World And Tomorrow we i manchester world, liverpool world, newcastle World And Tomorrow we have london newcastle World And Tomorrow we have London World youre allowed to do london, are you . Were moving into the territory. Thats tomorrow by birmingham and further down the line. Its been busy time for us. And the financing of those, how does that work . Weve created new roles. We created 45 new roles. The commercial side. Is obviously something we are developing just now. I think the longer term strategy. Around that is really trying to look at strategic partnerships in those cities. Really trying to make some connections with partners, blue chip partners within those cities. And move away slightly from the problematic advertising from the programmatic Advertising Market and be more reliant on things like video, really high quality sponsored content. And the more relevant i would say commercial side. So youre constantly having to innovate and rethink when it comes to where the money comes from. All the time, yeah. Allthe time, yeah. I all the time, yeah. I agree with what all the time, yeah. I agree with what lorna all the time, yeah. I agree with what lorna was all the time, yeah. I agree with what lorna was saying. Innovation is really vibrant within regional media. I think it would be wrong i to assume that its any less so than at the nationals. And we are constantly trying to innovate whether its podcast, video, all of those things long form storytelling, interactive content. Its the full range for us. Ifan, for you, how does the Funding Work . We were setting up the Media Business from the Media Business from scratch so we set up a not for profit company, so thats any profit we did make went straight back into the company itself. We are actually a subscriber driven service. So we get 20,000 a year from the Welsh Council which has been a great help. But the bulk of our funding actually comes from people who want to see our business succeed. And believe that wales needs a national News Network and so far weve got over 1000 subscribers every month supporting us at the moment. Right. So if you keep it good and keep it relevant in their eyes your hope is that they will continue to put their hands in their pockets . Yes, if you get 15,000 people giving you £2 a month, suddenly youve got enough to employ a whole stable ofjournalist. I think its been an unmet need in wales for a national news service. No one has filled that gap in the past now weve seen that gap in the market and people are ready to support us. Shazia, take us to your project and the Driving Force behind it. I hinted at this a moment ago, the way you consumed media when you were Growing Up, was that a source of frustration sometimes because you didnt think you were able to access some of the stories that you felt you should be able to read . Definitely. Just to conceptualise it, the Peoples Newsroom does have a particular focus to serve people that were marginalised perhaps by the media. And ive got some experience in that. Of course im welsh, but i also have a South Asian background, muslim background and Growing Up i did feel that where i existed we were unrepresented. But we were also misrepresented. Sometimes the distortion of identities i know and i understand. Yeah, i did feel that was damaging for myself and damaging for my communities. Even now, that damage is very obvious and still continuing. And thats why i studied journalism and why i became a reporter in swansea. I focused on the stories about communities here and a lot of the feedback we had was that we wouldnt often see the stories on tv. We werent seeing stories that we felt were important for us. That made us feel heard, they gave us a sense of validation. How will the Peoples Newsroom as a concept continue the work you just described . I think its ultimately a response to what our community said they want media ownership, they want to tell their own stories, they want to control the narrative in a way that tells our stories authentically and in a way that is respected and a way that we feel valued. And its a direct response to all of the experiences that we talk about. And what stage are you at at the moment . We are in the Project Design Phase at the moment. We are finding out how our audience consume news, where they want to consume news. Its all about Market Research and that deep needs mapping, that so important. Thats how we ensure sustainability. And where does it go . There you are in swansea and you described the project to us. Where else could go if it works . This is a Pilot Project here in swansea with east wales. And we know that the bureau are planning to scale this Work And Replicate that across the uk and support people to create their own local newsrooms next year. Again, it will rely on funding from those who read it, consume it, believe in it . Perhaps. I know that in our research now we are just trying to explore how that will work and respond to peoples needs. I know that our Business Model will be a direct response to our audiences needs. Ifan, i wanted to go back to you with your academic hat on for a moment. Weve talked so far about london and regionaljournalism and how its developing in so many different ways. How well placed does it then look to you to hold power to account . Because that is clearly a key element of what journalism, wherever it is in the country, should be doing. I think that one of the important things we can do is decentralise that journalism. Weve heard Leveling Up i already being mentioned. We need to level up the journalism in different parts of the uk as well| so that it tells the stories and represents the needs of people in different parts of the uk. I think that is what we do and what some of the other services discussed here today do as well. Nick mitchell, you were nodding at that. The regional element of holding power to account, its obviously an important factor for you too. Yes, i think ifan makes a very good point about Leveling Up the media industry, as well as wider society. I think that something thats kind of slightly irked me about the media is the sense that you have to go to london to make it. And hopefully projects like this, projects discussed today, show that we are opening up opportunities across the country for more backgrounds and notjust people who can afford to spend some time in london to get internships so really trying to open it up across the uk. Opening up as well forjob opportunities wherever you are in the uk. Absolutely. Youve probably seen that recently across the regional industry. So many vacancies just now and a lot of movement. I think its really healthy, its a healthy reflection of the fact that companies are being a lot bolder now. As publishers and as we move out of the pandemic and it does create new opportunities. I think one of the things that weve launched this week is a new apprentice programme. Its early days but we are really looking forward to bringing in new people through full Industry Training people from backgrounds that again may not have been as well represented in the past. I think theres a lot more opportunities and its not perfect but were getting there. Lorna, you mentioned your relationship with google A Little Bit earlier on. To some, Social Media might be seen as a potential rival, a problem for some of the work that you are doing. But you dont see it that way. No, the first thing is to differentiate. When we talk about silicon valley, differentiate between Search Engines and Social Media platforms. When we talk about google i think lots of people talk about the argument, Google And Facebook is kind of eating our lunch in terms of advertising. That argument is a decade old now. I think as an industry we need to pick ourselves up and get past that. The reason we are vocal around google is they came to the table before this got noisy. And they came to us and facebook, instagram, snapchat, they dont engage with us on regional level. Google have come to our business, they got to know our business at a micro level. And they asked how they can help. They didnt come in and say youre doing it wrong. And i suspect nick may sympathise with this, there is A Little Bit of arrogance that comes from outside this industry that looks in and says well, theyre just not good at doing a good job. And actually were doing a bloody excellent job. What google did was give us the space to breathe. They said ok, you got amazing talent in this business, here you go, heres some cash, go innovate. And go get sustainable. Does that provide you with a sustainable financial platform to build on . It will do. So were going through the news experiment, but yes, thats the absolute plan. It will be in terms of Reader Sites along with other initiatives around working with our businesses. 0k. Time is up, but thank you all very much indeed for taking part. Thank you to all of my guests. Nick mitchell, editor of nationalworld. Com, ifan morgan jones, Lorna Willis of archant, and shazia ali, leader of the Peoples Newsroom initiative in swansea. Thank you to all of you. The Media Show is back at the same time next week. Thank you very much for watching and goodbye. Hello there. Weve started to see some Warmth And Sunshine and further north some outbreaks of Rain Trickling Down and the far north of england but a much warmer night than it was last night in Scotland. 111 15 overnight tonight. More Mist And Fog in the South West of England And South wales, that will slowly burn off during the morning. Still some pockets of light Rain Or Drizzle left across southern Scotland, northern england, may be some sunshine in the North East of Scotland but it is really across much of england and wales that we will see the sunshine developing. Those temperatures continuing to rise. It will be a warmer day pretty much across the board on monday with temperatures that could get higher than that during tuesday and wednesday and it is getting much, much warmer and as we head towards Thursday Things will start to cool off again as we see the chance of some showers and some longer rain. This is Bbc News. The headlines at four. Its the sound of the underground. Former Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding has died at the age