Ofcom’s consultation on local radio news highlights the need to strengthen civic accountability and tackle the rise of news deserts, but its focus on bulletin compliance risks missing the chance to transform local media into a regenerative commons. A more ambitious approach would use AI to automate routine updates, freeing journalists to deliver embedded, culturally rich reporting across all programming. Unlike the BBC’s regionalised Digital First model, an open-protocol, open-platform and open-data framework would foster plurality, support new entrants, and embed communication within civic life, ensuring local media delivers social value, innovation and trust.
Ofcom is consulting on new licence conditions for local news and information on analogue commercial radio. The consultation was published on 1 July 2025 and closes on 22 September 2025. It proposes a clearer baseline for local bulletins, a requirement for some locally gathered reporting, daytime local information, and stronger transparency through the Public File. The intent is to restore a minimum level of trusted, place-relevant coverage after a decade of consolidation and cutbacks.
Better Media is presently consulting its members on a response to Ofcom’s current consultation on local radio news and information, details at https://bettermedia.uk/.
The immediate driver is statutory. The Media Act 2024 amended the Communications Act 2003, asking Ofcom to safeguard local news and information on local analogue commercial radio. Ofcom’s draft guidance sets out how stations should meet the new duties and how listeners can see what is being provided. This is a procedural step, but the context is larger. Local news use remains high, yet habits have shifted to digital and social platforms, reducing the routine, shared touchpoints that radio once provided. The effect has been visible in perceptions of civic decline and in the spread of areas with little or no professional local reporting.
What the consultation does
Ofcom’s documents describe a floor, not a ceiling. They retain frequent weekday bulletins, require peaks at weekends, and expect some content to be gathered by journalists who are physically present in the relevant area. They also modernise guidance by replacing legacy “localness” rules with clearer expectations about accuracy, freshness and disclosure. For most stations, the outcome is a predictable rhythm of local updates, with the Public File used to explain how the service is delivered and to make changes visible to listeners.
Why this is not enough
Bulletins alone do not constitute a living civic ecology. News understood only as short updates cannot carry the social value that emerges when people hear their councils scrutinised, their courts reported, their neighbourhoods described, and their culture reflected. Nor does a bulletin-only mindset support new entrants, independent publishers or community outlets who could contribute richer coverage if commissioning and distribution opened up.
A more far-reaching approach
Local radio needs a whole-station view of civic content. Automated systems can now maintain a dependable floor for routine updates such as traffic, weather, public notices and brief headlines. With careful provenance, audit trails and named editorial sign-off, automation can lower the cost of regularity without lowering standards. Human reporters can then be redeployed to the work that automation cannot do: contextually rich, embedded and representative reporting across all dayparts, including music hours, features and community strands. The aim is not to replace journalists, but to change what they spend time on.
This implies an infrastructure shift. The BBC’s Digital First strategy has moved local services toward regionalised and shared output, weakening the routine, place-specific link that radio can provide. The alternative is an open architecture that treats local news and information as a civic commons. Open protocols for syndication, open platforms for distribution, and open data for public information flows would allow multiple providers to contribute verified items into a shared corpus. Creative Commons licensing for suitable materials would increase re-use, archiving and discoverability. Over time, this would prime the very archives and public datasets that AI systems can learn from, reducing dependence on closed intermediaries and improving the local knowledge base those systems surface.
Competition, innovation and market health
The commercial logic for this shift is strong. The advertising market is recovering, yet skewed toward dominant online platforms. Radio protects its value when it offers distinct, trusted local reach. A pro-competitive regime under the DMCC Act now gives the CMA tools to address gatekeeper behaviour in search, app stores and AI answer surfaces. Linking open-protocol distribution and machine-readable Public Files to discoverability obligations would make compliant, timely local providers easier to find in voice assistants, car dashboards and AI summaries.
A regenerative foundational model
A regenerative approach treats local news as civic infrastructure with social value, not only as a cost of doing business. Public and philanthropic commissioning can be tied to social value outcomes and social gain, measured alongside listening and reach. Shared AI tooling can be funded for small operators on condition that outputs carry provenance, corrections and accessibility features. Community stations, independent publishers and commercial groups can share beats, diaries and training while maintaining editorial independence. The result is a plural supply of content that challenges protectionism, lowers barriers for new entrants and reduces over-reliance on subsidised incumbents.
What happens next
Ofcom’s consultation should be treated as a necessary baseline. The strategic task for industry, civil society and policymakers is to build the commons above that floor. That means adopting automation to guarantee regularity, investing human time in depth and representation, and opening commissioning, distribution and data so multiple voices can participate. If we do this, local radio can again be a daily civic habit that strengthens place, counters misinformation and sustains a resilient market for trusted local communication.
Endnotes
- Ofcom consultation: Local news and information on analogue commercial radio (published 1 July 2025; responses due 22 September 2025).
- Consultation document PDF: implementing the Media Act 2024 framework for local news.
- Draft Guidance: Provision of local news and information on analogue commercial radio.
- Ofcom Local Media Review hub and initial findings PDF (July 2024).
- Public Interest News Foundation: Local News Map and analysis.
- Ofcom Annual Report on the BBC 2023–24: rollout of BBC Local changes.
- Radiocentre statement on Ofcom’s consultation (1 July 2025).
- CMA: Digital markets competition regime guidance under the DMCC Act (effective 1 January 2025).
- CMA: AI Foundation Models update paper and competition principles (April 2024).