Founding editor of Buzzfeed Australia, Simon Crerar, to co-launch local news startup

Buzzfeed Australia’s founding editor and former general manager, Simon Crerar, has partnered with three other co-founders to create a local news startup. PS Media’s purpose is addressing the market failure for local news, including establishing mastheads in communities where newspapers have shuttered, creating news deserts.

Since early 2019, 194 local newsrooms have closed, Crerar told Mumbrella. The new platform will have a different business model to other “creaking and struggling” regional news companies and employ local journalists. But before the launch, planned for next year, the first steps are to fundraise, listen to what communities want, and “co-create this with Australia”.

“We’re going to go out and develop our product and run some pilots this year,” he noted. “And then next year we’ll be offering this model to the whole of Australia and rolling it out wherever people want it.”