• Six new bureaus, one newsroom, and a promise to stay free to read
• Why "fly in, fly out" journalism fails the communities it reports on
• The Kimberley bureau that became a blueprint for the north

On Tuesday the Federal Government awarded National Indigenous Times (NIT) $2.2 million from its News Innovation Fund. We thank the government for backing our News Deserts to News Networks strategy. This funding will put NIT journalists on the ground across northern Australia.

Over the next two years we will double our newsroom capacity, with full-time reporters in six key locations across northern Australia.

Indigenous communities in regional and remote Australia deserve local news reported by journalists who live in their towns and understand both the issues they face and the opportunities in ahead of them.

Large parts of the country are becoming news deserts. Newsrooms are pulling out, advertising is drying up, redundancies keep coming, and rising costs are squeezing what budget remains. The Public Interest Journalism Initiative recently counted 31 local government areas in Australia with no local news producer, and 11 of them sit inside our expansion footprint.

In much of the north, journalists rarely turn up to community events. When a story does draw a reporter, they fly in, file and fly out, with little local knowledge and few relationships to shape the coverage.

Nothing beats a local journalist who lives and works in community all year round.

Each new regional bureau will connect to our national newsroom, so a story from the smallest community can reach a national audience the same day. A National Editor at our headquarters will run the network. We will also train and pay local contributors to report on their own communities, providing an opportunity for those who want a career in journalism to move into a cadetship, giving young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the regions a path into the industry.

Over the coming months we will consult with Indigenous leaders and community members about the shape of our northern footprint: where our reporters should be based, and which stories matter most to the people they serve.

We know the model works because our Kimberley bureau already runs on it. Since August 2025 a senior journalist based in Broome has covered the region full time, backed by local Aboriginal corporations like the Kimberley Land Council, Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation, Leedal and Marra Worra Worra helping us maintain constant coverage of Fitzroy Crossing, Broome and the broader region.

Kimberley communities now see their own stories told, and local organisations have a voice on the national stage. In the Pilbara, Karlka Nyiyaparli Aboriginal Corporation has helped us establish our reach in the Pilbara. This grant lets us take that model right across the north.

National Indigenous Times has grown rapidly in recent years. Our digital readership has nearly tripled in the last three years, and our engaged readership has grown almost fivefold, to more than 2 million website users each year.

This grant funding will supercharge that growth. Our goal is a network that lasts well beyond the grant period, sustained by the partners, subscribers, donors and advertisers who already back our work. Their support also keeps NIT free to read, with no paywall, for every community we cover.

Over the next two years, the news from the north will come from the north.

Reece Harley is the Managing Director of NIT Group.