A comprehensive new mapping project tracks news ownership and status in the UK.

Around the world, gaps in the media landscape are appearing where news publishers are closing.

At the same time, researchers like those at PIJI are scrambling to keep track of the changes to give stakeholders a clear sense of their country’s news media.

In the UK, the Public Interest News Foundation has just released the beta version of its new Local News Map. This map displays the professional local media outlets in each local area along with their address, their status – corporate or independent, for example – and their ownership.

PINF’s project joins a slew of similar projects around the world, including PIJI’s Australian News Data Report.

Researcher Sameer Padania has compiled information on these projects:

Good to see an uptick in various initiatives trying to map both the growth/presence and loss/absence of newsrooms – I’ve listed just a few in the tweets in this thread, but do let me know of others you’ve come across…
1/n

— Sameer Padania (@sdp) January 11, 2022

Other news mapping initiatives around the world include:

• In Canada, this map tracks the impact of COVID-19 on media outlets
• In Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa, this project examines digital media entrepreneurs
• The Institute for Nonprofit News keeps an index of nonprofit news organisations in the US
• Netzwerk Recherche is researching public interest journalism across Europe

PIJI welcomes those who share our vision of a sustainable future for public interest journalism.