“We’re selling tea towels, believe it or not!”: exploring place as currency in the battle for local news sustainability

This paper discusses the evolving importance of cultural commodities for local news businesses searching for solutions to their sustainability. It draws on the concept of “place as currency” to understand how local news outlets leverage cultural products inspired by geography, collective memory, and people’s connection to place. Our research suggests that small-town newsrooms have a renewed appreciation for the value of cultural commodities – from cookbooks celebrating local produce to memorabilia – as products that reinforce their powerful placemaking role and help to indirectly support their provision of public-interest journalism. We suggest that “place as currency” is an under-explored area in academic research examining the business of local news sustainability. Our findings are drawn from a thematic analysis of data collected via a series of interviews with news producers in rural and regional areas of Australia.