Shelley Seale is a journalist, content creator, award-winning writer, author, publication designer, editor and communications professional. She can be reached at www.shelleyseale.com. and Twitter
What’s Happening:
A major new initiative for local journalism in the United Kingdom was announced on March 21 when two of the country’s largest regional news publishers, Reach PLC and JPI Media, and an innovative new podcast platform, Entale, teamed up to launch a project called Laudable.
Laudable, which aims to kickstart local news in audio form, was also backed with a 500,000 Euro grant from Google’s Digital News Initiative. This funding will go towards developing new platforms for local audio, and identifying ways of making podcasts and other audio projects sustainable through revenue.
Why It Matters:
Laudable aims to facilitate the creation of new audio programs in regional newsrooms across the UK, with a particular focus on working with communities to connect people whose voices are not currently heard in local news. Laudable will also work to create cross-company podcasts, involving journalists from multiple publishers to create engaging series..
