community


£260m transformation investment – involving relocation in September next year to a smart new glass and steel multistorey building in the heart of the capital – and CC4J will be part of it. Plans for No 2 Central Square (next to BBC Wales’ new home) include a 300-seat lecture theatre, six newsrooms, dedicated editing suites, TV and radio studios, postgraduate research space, a library and innovation and stakeholder engagement labs. C4CJ workers hope it will enable them to offer local news publishers training, research, legal support and advocacy. Meese said: “When the centre was set


A vocal network for hyperlocal sites


I


n the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, it was said that had there been a flourishing local media able to call


Kensington & Chelsea council to account and act on tenants’ fears, the disaster may never have happened. “Local press matters: we see that


now,” ran an Observer headline. The article went on to say “without journalists to cause a ruckus, scandals slide by unchecked”. It also questioned what could be done in the digital era. Cardiff University’s Centre for


Community Journalism (C4CJ) has been addressing that very question since its launch in 2013. And, following wide consultation in Wales, England and Scotland on what the 400 hyperlocal news publishers most needed for sustainability, they found top of the list was a representative body. Grass doesn’t grow under the feet of


C4CJ’s dynamic duo – manager Emma Meese (a former BBC journalist) and project director Matt Abbott (politics graduate, communications professional and experienced charities campaigner). Embracing the concept of an representative body and obtaining financial support from the university for its first five years, they have just


8 | theJournalist


An umbrella group for hyperlocal sites has been set up at Cardiff University. Jenny Sims reports


launched the Independent Community News Network (ICNN). This is run by a board drawn from its membership with support from the C4CJ. The C4CJ website proclaims: “ICNN is


the UK representative body for the independent community and hyperlocal news sector. We exist to promote the interests of community and hyperlocal publishers and to champion new sustainable forms of local digital and print journalism. Our focus is at the local and hyperlocal level; the place where journalism is most valued, but also most at risk.” At the end of a long basement


corridor in Cardiff University’s 19th century, Portland stone Bute building, glass panelled doors swing open to a large, white-walled room shared by Meese, Abbott and their part-time administrative staffer. It’s CCCJ’s office and hub – but not for much longer. Cardiff’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies is undergoing a


“ ”


Their ambitions have grown: calling for public funding for local publishers, and campaigning for press cards for local journalists


up as part of the university’s Transforming Communities engagement projects, our one goal was to help create more journalism jobs and encourage and promote the dissemination of quality news.” Their ambitions have grown since then: calling for public funding for community independent publishers, a change in the law to allow statutory notices to be placed on hyperlocal sites (not just in local newspapers), and campaigning for press cards for their journalists so they can access courts and councils. Such has been the centre’s success,


Stockholm’s Södertörn University plans to replicate what it’s been doing, and Meese and Abbott are in demand internationally to talk about their work. Both were in Canada earlier this year and Meese has travelled as far as Brazil. Achievements have been many,


including: delivering a variety of training courses – some in partnership with NUJ Training Wales, engaging a media lawyer on a retainer to advise on members’ queries, providing moocs (free online courses) to 32,000 people in 142 countries, and persuading the BBC to include hyperlocal journalists in its eligibility criteria for its Locality reporters scheme. In July. Press Gazette reported that 15 hyperlocal reporters in the UK had been contracted. Plans include carrying out a survey


“to get a real time picture of the landscape”, creating a forum space and organising conference events. “We’ve no vested interest except getting jobs for local journalists and maintaining standards,” says Mees. Abbott adds: “The sector is diverse and disparate and needs a voice.” With the launch of ICNN, the UK’s


400 hyperlocals (including 40 in Wales) now have one.


GARY WATERS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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