This week has seen a raft of positive media coverage for the people who are more used to writing the headlines than being featured in them – those behind the majority of our local news in the UK. 

Reach plc, the publisher of most local news sites and newspapers from the Manchester Evening News to the Nottingham Post, and many national titles including the Mirror and the Express, has just announced its annual figures.  

The publishing giant has reported a 6% rise in its operating profits in 2024 to a total of £102.3m, driven by a record set of results from across its teams who are delivering innovative and ever-evolving news products for its audiences.  

The publisher has grown scale through engagement, with a larger audience of readers reading more of its content, and impressively, has specifically grown its under-35 audiences faster than its overall audience. In a world where news avoidance and distrust in the media is mounting by the minute, this is no mean feat.  

The business has moved swiftly in order to grow. Last year it developed and launched its own AI-writing tool, Guten, which is being used, for example, to repurpose weather bulletins into stories for local news websites, as well as automating article uploading and image selection. 

Eden’s Digital and PR Account Executive, Daniela Loffreda was previously a Senior Reporter at both the Derby Telegraph and Nottingham Post and can see the benefits of the use of AI from a regional journalism perspective: “It’s great to see local newsrooms reporting some positive results off the back of what has undoubtedly been a difficult few years for journalism. The work our local independent journalists do is vital in holding public organisations to account and giving a voice to the most marginalised in society – all in free-to-access news.  

“For local newsrooms to continue to be able to have the resources to allocate to stories that matter, it’s essential that they make good use of tools and technology that can help generate page views and ad revenue while giving reporters the capacity to be out on patch engaging with their local audience and doing good journalism.  

“With AI-written articles generating 1.8 billion page views for Reach in 2024, and the company’s, ‘Customer Value Strategy’, returning a 19% growth in the value of each online page view, using such tech to quickly generate content such as trending pieces makes a lot of sense.  

“Nevertheless, organisations like Reach cannot lose sight of how important building and maintaining trust with its readers is. Incorporating AI into regional journalism must be done sparingly to maintain the right balance between generating ad revenue and engaging with a loyal audience.” 

The latest IPSOS figures show Reach dominating the online space when it comes to driving traffic to its websites – the most staggering of which was the regional journalism giant, Manchester Evening News growing its audience by 22% year-on-year in January 2025 – and page views up by 33% when compared to the same period in 2024. 

And on the whole, Reach’s ‘Live’ network of websites saw a rise of 6.8% year-on-year in page views, with a 1% increase in overall audience – making for a successful start to 2025. 

The business has also looked to diversify its offering further than that of a traditional publisher. It has pioneered the use of WhatsApp Communities, which has driven 4 million referrals back to Reach’s website network.  

The group’s e-commerce income grew 39% year-on-year too, helped by products like the OK! magazine Beauty Box, which hit 15,000 subscribers. There were further moves into e-commerce with the launch of Reach’s own online shop, Yimbly in mid-2024 – and an extension into B2B sales through the licensing of its own adtech platform Mantis. This led to partnerships being struck with publishers including LADbible Group, Immediate Media, National World and Netmums. 

With the use of AI across many different sectors expected to increase as a result of the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, we will watch with interest how the media integrates, develops with and pushes back on all aspects of AI options which are multiplying every day.