Developed with grassroots publishers, journalists, and media experts, the Starter Kit responds to the urgent needs of communities left behind by the collapse of commercial media. Between 2019 and mid 2020, more than 200 newsrooms closed across Australia, leaving many regional and diverse communities without a trusted source of information.
The Newsroom Starter Kit reflects LINA’s broader mission to support a thriving, sustainable ecosystem of independent newsmakers. It is tailored for anyone—from journalists and community workers to passionate residents—motivated to raise the voices of their community and provide essential information.
“Independent, community-driven news organisations are agile, trusted, and deeply connected to the places they serve,” LINA’s Executive Director Claire Stuchbery said.
“Starting a newsroom and building its sustainability is a hard road, and the Kit provides a roadmap to make quality news services accessible in all communities.”
The Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) recorded the net contraction of newsroom closures slowed significantly since 2022, after LINA’s emergence as an industry association. There has also been an acceleration in digital newsroom openings in Australia, with 40 percent of LINA member publishers launched in the past four years.
One such publication, Victoria’s Prom Coast News, was started in 2024 by passionate local volunteers and donors to fill the news desert left after the region’s 140 year old local paper shut down.
Co-founder Dr Kaye Rodden OAM said they were spurred into action by the prospect of the area facing upcoming sports finals and a local government election with “no local voice for the community or local way that the community could hear about their candidates”.
“The community weren’t getting any information at all,” Dr Rodden said. “We started up pretty much with a piece of paper with all the jobs that needed to be done to run a newspaper … [thinking] ‘how on earth are we going to do that?’.
“We’ve uncovered significant things in the region. We have a focus on the environment and climate change … We’ve given local candidates for both the federal and the local government elections a really good airing so they felt like they could put their policies out to the community.”
LINA offers newsrooms a range of other resources to build capacity and sustainability and support Australian’s access to quality public interest journalism. This includes free technical, legal, advertising and HR support, an on-demand sub-editor service (now free for interns), grants for journalism, discounts, training and more. Access the free Newsroom Starter Kit.
Contact us to arrange an interview with Claire Stuchbery.
