Newham Voices publisher Social Spider CIC was one of 15 local media groups to be awarded contracts as part of the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) in 2025.
Launched in 2017, LDRS provides 165 journalism jobs to help fill a gap in the reporting of local democracy issues across the UK.
As one of only two contract holders in the capital, at Social Spider we now employ three LDRS reporters covering nine London boroughs – Enfield, Barnet and Haringey; Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Havering; and (since 2025) Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
The three journalists we employ under the scheme are funded by the BBC. The news content they generate is then made available to more than 1,000 partner publications, as well as to the BBC itself.
The purpose of LDRS is to provide impartial coverage of the regular business and workings of local authorities in the UK, and other relevant democratic institutions. The brief of LDRS reporters is to report on the decision-making process; what decisions are made in the public’s name, how they are arrived at, and what evidence is presented to the council.
Any LDRS content published by Newham Voices is always attributed as First Name, Last Name, Local Democracy Reporter.
For more information about LDRS and how it works:
Visit bbc.com/lnp/ldrs
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