In an increasingly fragmented and competitive attention economy, local media remain the best placed in terms of attention. According to a recent study by the Reuters Institute, 47% of respondents are interested in local news .
While politics is very polarized and big city journalism suffers, this is not the case for local journalism. It brings together all social classes and education levels whose interest converges in the same type of information. “ Locality is perhaps the most unifying thing in these polarized times,” says Rasmus Kleis. This is encouraging for the future as long as local media remain attentive to their community: What do readers want? What are their values? What can we offer them?
The PQR is increasingly committed to its viber data community. Sandrine Thomas, Editor-in-Chief of La Montagne, has become the spokesperson for a movement on social networks to improve the quality of the SNCF Paris-Clermont line. The goal? To improve the daily lives of its readers who suffer from the incessant delays and the deterioration of the line. The commitment of the newspaper La Montagne to its readers has helped to maintain dialogue with the government.
Another example: obtaining a second rescue helicopter for the region to be able to transport injured people from the road and the mountains to the nearest university hospitals. The local media is no longer content to cover the news but is committed to improving things.
Being the voice of its community and committing to the region and its citizens is also the guiding principle of Voix du Nord . “People have expectations around this notion of usefulness, especially from the new generations – the “impact natives”. Local media is particularly suited to this mission,” explains Gabriel d'Arcourt, General Manager.
The daily newspaper recently mobilized on school bullying through meetings, surveys and testimonies to arrive at eight proposals for solutions to the rector, three of which are being implemented. Another initiative of La Voix du Nord is a partnership with Croisons le Faire , a collective of entrepreneurs whose objective is to identify positive initiatives for the community and replicate them on a regional scale. La Voix du Nord covers success stories but also helps to identify them.
Local news journalists are putting themselves at the service of their readers to help bring out solutions. Rue89 Strasbourg has thus carried out several field operations in working-class neighborhoods to listen to residents and bring up issues. A recently renovated neighborhood had completely disappeared from all service platforms – based on GPS coordinates – due to a change in street names. Following the publication of the article in the newspaper, the problem was resolved very quickly.