A last-minute lifeline thrown by the federal government to the Local & Independent News Association (LINA) has kept the doors from shutting on one of Australia’s most active supporters of small news publishers. 

In July, LINA, a not-for-profit charity dedicated to supporting local and independent digital news organisations, extended its grant contract with the government until June 2026. 

The exact value of the grant extension has not been made public at time of writing, but Mumbrella previously reported the charity was seeking $720,000, the equivalent of about a year’s bridging funding. 

The contract extension came about a month after LINA executive director Claire Stuchbery asked members to write to Communications Minister Anika Wells for intervention as LINA faced “going under” with an “end-of-financial-year cliff” approaching.

LINA now has six employees working at 4.3 FTE capacity, with one former staff member having chosen redundancy rather than reduced hours during the funding transition process. Closure would also be a direct hit to small independent Australian newsrooms relying on the charity for education, support and growth opportunities. 

Stuchbery tells PIJI the contract extension resulted from months of conversation with the government.  

This was necessary as delays to the rollout of the promised News Media Assistance Program (News MAP) meant LINA could not apply for grants at the start of the year as expected. 

“Until the competitive grant process is available for us to apply for, we’ve been able to get some direct funding support to keep us operating,” Stuchbery says. 

“A lot of our work … helping to build sustainability of the news ecosystem and make sure that we have diverse voices in our media landscape … align with government policy in this space and with trying to support media diversity more broadly.” 

The extended funding means LINA will be able to continue efforts to assist existing and emerging small news publishers in growing sustainable businesses in increasingly tough conditions. 

In June, LINA released a Newsroom Starter Kit to help address the serious issue of Australia’s news deserts. 

PIJI’s September 2024 report found five local government areas across the country had no local news publishers or radio news outlets, and 27 had no local news publishers, excluding radio. 

“The Newsroom Starter Kit is really to help people who might be in a community where there isn’t a local news service currently or there’s a gap in the news market that they’ve identified, and they want to do something about that,” Stuchbery says. 

“Also how to do that in a way that makes sure that you are reporting news that meets professional editorial standards, and … can combat mis- and disinformation, and that can be a really reliable and accurate source of news for your community.” 

Also this year, LINA helped 35 newsrooms raise $90,000 in community donations (matched by $20,000 in philanthropic support) through the second annual ‘Our News, Your Voice’ campaign. 

Stuchbery says the event also gives newsrooms experience in running digital campaigns, knowledge of tools needed to receive online donations, and in some cases, commitments of ongoing financial support from local community members beyond the week-long campaign. 

The results show a keen understanding from Australian communities of the vital role local public interest journalism plays, she says. 

Stuchbery tells PIJI says much of the media content being produced in Australia focuses on international, national or state news. 

That news is important, but people also need to know what is going on in their own communities – and have others know as well. 

“I hear a lot of people use analogies like how it’s easier to find out what Donald Trump had for breakfast than it is to find out why there’s an ambulance at the bottom of your own street,” she says. 

“That’s why local and independent news is really important … It’s partly about getting information into communities so that people have community resilience, emergency preparedness information and those things that can be life-saving at times of crisis. 

“Also, it’s about how do we know at a national level what’s going on in different areas and have that diversity of perspectives shared back out into the news ecosystem.” 

LINA currently represents 175 newsrooms around the country, with each paying between $23 to $28 monthly for access to services such as discounted defamation insurance, revenue development programs and subsidised sub-editing.  

Written by Sezen Bakan