In the Scottish archipelago of Shetland, nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, covering local news often amounts to documenting one of the UK's major strategic challenges: the energy transition. The reason lies in a strategic geographical position and a historical role in the British energy mix. Exposed to powerful winds, this territory covering 1,500 km², comparable to London, has the highest concentration of wind turbines per capita in the country. Just 150 kilometres off its coast also lies the UK's largest untapped oil and gas reservoir, fuelling debates and tensions… as well as the pages of local media.
« Everything is constantly evolving, it's bloody hard to keep up with. We cover these topics every week, almost every day », says Hans J. Marter, editor-in-chief of Shetland News. Investigative and field work that, he regrets, remains too often confined to the boundaries of the archipelago, even though the issues are deeply national, even global: electricity storage, infrastructure planning, economic benefits… But how can a media outlet, located in the northernmost territory of the United Kingdom, 170 km from mainland Scotland, make these topics relevant beyond the archipelago, when its readership, circulation and brand remain deeply rooted locally?
It was precisely this reflection that gave birth to The Power Shift, a joint editorial project led by several members of Scottish Beacon, a network of Scottish local media outlets. The goal: to connect investigations conducted across different territories in order to emerge, from the ground up, a national reading of the ongoing energy transitions and to share experiences from one community to another.
Connecting local stories to reveal a national issue
To understand the motivations behind The Power Shift, we need to go back to 2021, during COP26 in Glasgow. Faced with debates dominated by international players, several news outlets took the opposite approach: starting from the hyperlocal level to document, on the ground, the concrete effects of climate change and to inform global-scale debates.
For this occasion, eleven local media outlets launch a shared magazine dedicated to the experiences of their territories, printed in 20,000 copies and distributed around the event venue. The experience acts as a catalyst. Rhiannon J. Davies, founder of the local media Greater Govanhill, wants to extend the initiative, inspired by similar experiences observed in the United States: "The idea with Scottish Beacon is to be both a network that connects independent media outlets rooted in their communities across Scotland to share ideas, articles, resources, skills, and support each other, but also a platform where we can publish our content while working together to connect the dots and surface trends. If a community hall closes in a small community, that's a local story. But if it happens in ten different communities, it might become a national story", sums up the person who now holds the role of project lead.
Launched in 2022 with eighteen newsrooms, with support from the Google News Initiative, the Scottish Beacon now has twenty-five members. They exchange ideas, content and expertise, and develop occasional joint editorial projects. Membership is free, but subject to validation by members, both on the editorial project and the business model. « What unites them is their genuine local anchor, both in their location and ownership, as well as the sincere attention they pay to the territories they cover », assures Rhiannon J. Davies. To finance its activities, the network relies on various mechanisms, including grants, annual or monthly contributions from citizens, and the collective commercialization of advertising space.
In 2025, as members seek a project to submit to the Tenacious Journalist Awards, a Public Interest News Foundation program dedicated to supporting British local media, the energy transition emerges as an obvious common theme: "We discussed two or three ideas during a meeting where everyone suggested topics related to what they were experiencing locally," recalls Rhiannon J. Davies, "and this was the one that really started to generate enthusiasm and resonated with enough different realities". The Power Shift then takes shape. A collaborative investigation founded on a simple principle: a topic broad enough to connect several regions without erasing their specificities, so that each newsroom can contribute from their own ground while participating in a national perspective.
Structured editorial cooperation, but demanding
The grant awarded by the Tenacious Journalist Awards, estimated at
" We try to do it in a very fair way. So if one person writes a 2,000-word article and another writes a 500-word one, unless there's a particular reason, they'll be compensated the same way", explains Rhiannon J. Davies. Beyond volume, it's the contribution to a collective project, in varied forms, that is valued.
Participation in Power Shift remains voluntary: each Scottish Beacon newsroom chooses whether to get involved based on how relevant the subject is to its community. At this stage, ten of the twenty-five network members have chosen to participate. In exchange, a certain level of commitment is expected: "They were asked to attend a certain number of meetings and produce either a long-form article or a shorter series of linked articles", explains the project coordinator.
These meetings make it possible to coordinate publications, avoid duplication, and share information, expertise, and lessons learned. They also serve another purpose: breaking the isolation of local newsrooms scattered across a wide territory. A challenge that is all the more crucial given that these media outlets cover topics that can sometimes divide, such as the energy transition, which may split the communities they come from. Tensions to which journalists are directly exposed: "I'm not in a large newsroom, in an office located in the industrial zone of a city. Here, everyone knows who I am and how to reach me. And the same goes for the journalists who work here. So in a way, we are scrutinized on a daily basis", says Hans J. Marter. In this context, the collective plays a key role: "The simple fact of having other people going through similar situations is a real source of strength. It also builds confidence. We've seen journalists publish things they wouldn't have published before, because they knew they had the group's support", notes Rhiannon J. Davies.
Pooling distribution to scale up
The logic of pooling resources doesn't stop at production. Distribution is also thought through collectively. On the Scottish Beacon website, articles compile information published by different members of the network as part of Power Shift, though the publishing pace has been irregular, admits Rhiannon J. Davies, notably due to staff changes; a reminder that these projects also rely on limited resources, both in time and means, especially for small newsrooms: "I think we're doing rather well," tempters Hans J. Marter. We managed to secure funding for this year, which allows us to continue the project (Power Shift, editor's note) in 2026. But it would probably take much more. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day and you need to sleep sometimes too. The work is immense."
Content also circulates between newsrooms, following a logic of republication that is actively encouraged. An article initially published by Fios about the growth of major wind projects in the Hebrides can thus be picked up by Shetland News, or an article from Kyle Chronicle about the role of local governance in energy projects is republished on Lochside Press. Content accompanied by a byline and visual, indicating to readers their involvement in the Power Shift project and redirecting to the Scottish Beacon website.
Political impact in the crosshairs
To expand the project's reach even further, the network is exploring other avenues. A partnership with national media outlet The Herald made it possible to republish a series of five articles, written as part of Power Shift, providing national visibility as well as an additional revenue stream. "We received funding from The Herald to co-publish this project, but not everyone was published by the newspaper. We still chose to distribute the revenue fairly, because everyone had contributed in the same way," notes Rhiannon J. Davies.
Between the support of the Scottish Beacon, The Herald, republications on members' websites… how do you measure the impact and visibility of information produced by the project? Its coordinator explains that she relies more on spontaneous qualitative feedback than on rigorous tracking of statistics: "We also gather feedback from our audiences: some tell us that the project helped them vote in elections, or that they feel more engaged. Media outlets also tell us if they see an increase in subscriptions or in their audience. We don't track everything systematically, but we try to collect this feedback as soon as possible".
A follow-up that is far from the most exhaustive, but as Scottish elections scheduled for next May approach, the question of the political impact of the initiative becomes more pressing than ever for some members. In the middle of explaining his involvement in Power Shift, Hans J. Marter raises a finger and suddenly stops: his phone rings. A candidate for the Scottish Parliament is trying to reach him. « I need to talk to her specifically about this issue », he says. For the editor-in-chief, the objective is clear: to bring energy issues to the attention of future elected officials. To do this, participants in the project plan in particular the creation of a printed magazine, bringing together productions from various members of Power Shift, with one copy to be sent to each new member of parliament. « If I have the opportunity to talk to them (the elected officials, editor's note) about these issues, to influence their vision, to raise their awareness of the work we do and have done, and if that comes through the magazine or through our articles, then I think we will have accomplished something important », concludes Hans J. Marter, who sees the political impact generated by this work as one of the main indicators of its success.
A model seeking to fill gaps and share its work more widely
With a second grant of between £10,000 and £20,000 from Uplift, an organisation campaigning to phase out oil and gas from the UK energy mix, the Power Shift project will continue its activities in 2026. This new phase is part of the broader development of Scottish Beacon: on 10 April, the collective will host Power Shift LIVE in Glasgow, an event marking the launch of its magazine, available free for pre-order. This will be an opportunity to showcase the work of its editorial teams over recent months, and to formally announce the imminent expansion of the network with the launch of Scottish Beacon Plus, an initiative dedicated to environmental journalism, designed to extend beyond local newsrooms and bring together specialist journalists, experts and committed volunteers.
In parallel, the network is looking to develop other channels, like its newsletter published on Substack, which at this stage remains underutilized due to lack of time. « Among our 25 partners, if each one contributes twice a year, we can offer a weekly newsletter, each time written from the perspective of a different newsroom », imagines Rhiannon J. Davies. But this diversification of distribution channels is not a substitute for developing its own platforms, she assures. The Scottish Beacon website could thus evolve toward a more collaborative model, allowing each newsroom to publish its content directly there in order to make it a more lively and responsive space, by distributing tasks among the different members.
To go further
- Operating in limited geographic areas, some media outlets practice so-called "hyperlocal" journalism, staying as close to the ground as possible. Some are now choosing to pool their efforts, for practical, economic, or journalistic reasons.
- Disclose and Rembobine produced a guide for newsrooms wanting to measure and showcase their impact.
