Greater Govanhill joined community media organisations from across Scotland at the Scottish Parliament to highlight the role of local journalism in strengthening communities – and the need for greater support for the sector.

Film about the role of community media in community wealth building being shown in the chamber

On Friday 27 February, Greater Govanhill – along with other members of the Scottish Beacon local news collaborative – was invited to an event at the Scottish Parliament titled Local People Leading.

Organised by the Scottish Community Alliance, the event saw Scotland’s communities sector take over the Parliament for the day to discuss a range of issues, including what Scotland’s new Community Wealth Building Act will mean in practice.

The landmark, world-leading Community Wealth Building legislation places a legal duty on councils, health boards and other public bodies to keep wealth circulating locally rather than flowing to distant investors. The new law requires public agencies to work with communities on action plans focused on local procurement, jobs, social enterprises and community ownership of land and assets.

Community Wealth Building in action

A film created by our sister organisation Greater Community Media was shown in the parliamentary chamber, featuring stories of Community Wealth Building in action. The aim was to demonstrate that this approach is not new, but something the community sector has been leading on for many years.

The film included examples such as Glenfarg Community Transport, Tiree Community Development Trust, Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, The Nevis Centre, Mayfield and Easthouses Development Trust, and Greater Govanhill.

In the video, our founder, Rhiannon J Davies, highlighted the importance of community media not only for sharing local information but also for enabling communities to reclaim their own narrative.

She also emphasised the difference between corporately run local media that primarily serves distant shareholders and genuinely community-owned publications.

“With community media, we are all about serving the community and keeping wealth in the community…For me, Community Wealth Building is all about local ownership. When you do things by, for and with the community, you create something which has a positive effect locally.”

Rhiannon Davies and Samar Jamal leading the workshp

Workshop on the role of community media

The second part of the day consisted of workshops, and Greater Govanhill was invited to lead one titled How Community Media Can Strengthen Community Cohesion.

The session was led by Rhiannon J Davies and Samar Jamal, who spoke about the work of The Scottish Beacon and Greater Govanhill respectively.

They were joined by representatives from several other Beacon publications, including The Clydesider, Midlothian View, Orkney News, Currie & Balerno News, Crail Matters and Fios Community News.

Participants were invited to take part in an open newsroom style workshop reflecting on where they got their news, what stories they though were missing from local media and what they’d like to see more of.

Afterwards some reflected they hadn’t previously considered the difference between

Question to MSPs on public advertising to support community media

In the closing session, attendees were able to put their questions to a cross-party panel of MSPs – Lorna Slater (Scottish Greens), Mercedes Villalba (Scottish Labour), Jamie Halcro Johnston (Scottish Conservatives) and Christine Grahame (Scottish National Party).

Amanda Eleftheriades-Sherry of Clydeside Creative, Fiona Grahame of Orkney News and Rhiannon Davies of Greater Govanhill

Amanda Eleftheriades-Sherry of Clydeside Creative asked why a portion of Scottish Government and local authority advertising budgets could not be allocated to independent community media rather than going almost exclusively to large corporate outlets.

She highlighted that many community publications have strong local readership and trust but struggle to access public sector advertising.

Similar policies have been introduced elsewhere, including in New York City, where a policy sets out that 50% local government advertising spending is directed specifically to community media – bringing £72 million into the the local media ecosystem over the past five years. Amanda noted that such a policy would not require additional public spending, but simply a conscious decision to keep more wealth within communities.

Responding to the question, Lorna Slater said there was no clear reason why public bodies should not make greater use of community media.

“Local media is absolutely the most trusted,” she said.
“I don’t think there’s any reason why public bodies shouldn’t use it – it’s probably just that they’ve always used the same contracts and the same outlets.”

She encouraged community media organisations to raise the issue with their MSPs and suggested it could form the basis of a wider campaign.

“That’s a really clear ask with clear community benefit,” she said. “It would benefit public bodies as well because we know the readership of local papers is strong. It’s a great campaign – something to write to your representatives about and get into party manifestos.”

The conversation also highlighted the growing recognition of community media as an important part of Scotland’s local democracy. However, many organisations continue to operate with limited resources despite serving large and engaged local audiences.

Participants emphasised that greater recognition and support for community-owned media could play an important role in strengthening community cohesion, improving access to trusted local information, and helping wealth remain within local communities.

Three asks for the Scottish Government

Members of The Scottish Beacon are now calling for greater support for independent community media, including:

A portion of Scottish Government and local authority advertising budgets to be dedicated to community media outlets – similar to this policy from New York City where 50% of ad spend goes to community media – ensuring that public spending supports trusted local journalism and remains within local communities
The creation of a public fund to support independent local media, similar to the £210k fund introduced in Wales to help sustain local journalism and strengthen the local news ecosystem.
A funded placement scheme for journalists – particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds – that is accessible to independent community publishers, helping diversify the media sector, create new jobs and supporting smaller outlets to grow. This is similar to the Local Journalism Initiative and Changing Narratives fund in Canada.

Supporters say these measures would help strengthen local democracy, improve access to trusted local information, and ensure community media can continue serving communities across Scotland.