Analysis of publisher Companies House filings, IPSO membership data, and Press Gazette’s title tracker shows that 320 local newspaper titles across the United Kingdom have permanently ceased publication since January 2020. A further 140 titles have converted from print to digital-only formats, in most cases with significantly reduced staffing and coverage.
The 2026 closure rate — 47 titles in the first nine months of the year — is the highest since 2019, when 62 closures were recorded in a year of significant consolidation among regional publishers. The trend persists despite the government’s Local Democracy Reporting Service, which provides £8 million annually to fund 165 reporters embedded in local news organisations to cover councils, courts, and public bodies.
The LDRS in Context
The LDRS, administered by the BBC on behalf of the government, is funded to 2026/27. Its renewal has not been confirmed. Industry analysis suggests the 165 LDRS reporters represent approximately 3% of the estimated total local journalism workforce in 2015; the current workforce is estimated at roughly a third of the 2015 level, meaning LDRS reporters now account for approximately 9% of surviving local journalism capacity — a proportion that has grown not because the scheme has expanded but because the underlying workforce has collapsed.
The Cairncross Review of 2019 recommended a significantly larger public interest media fund, equivalent to approximately £100 million annually. No government has implemented this recommendation.
News Deserts
Exposed News analysis of parliamentary constituency data shows that 74 Westminster constituencies — across both urban and rural areas — now have no dedicated local newspaper serving them. This compares to 31 constituencies in 2015 and 12 in 2010. The Media Reform Coalition defines a “news desert” as a constituency with no print or digital news outlet covering it with at least one full-time equivalent journalist. On that definition, 74 constituencies currently qualify.
The implications extend beyond civic accountability. Research by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, published in 2025, found that voter turnout in local elections was 7 percentage points lower in news desert constituencies than in constituencies with active local journalism — a statistically significant correlation that held after controlling for socioeconomic variables.