In a new report Hacked Off finds that:

1. Over the last six years, IMPRESS membership has risen from just 26 publishers in 2017 to 113 today. It has now overtaken IPSO as, by publisher, the most popular complaints-handling body in the country.
2. 67% of IMPRESS-regulated publishers are local or hyper-local, many of them serving communities where larger local publishers have pulled out.
3. 60% of all publishers in such a body are IMPRESS-regulated, the remaining 40%, the minority, are in the IPSO organisation.
4. IMPRESS’ achievements come in the face of opposition and attack from the Government and wealthy national newspapers.
5. IMPRESS’ success is driven by its members - a diverse and vibrant group of publishers producing journalism of the highest quality.

Read the report here:https://hackinginquiry.org/10-years-of-press-freedom/Senior Campaigns Officer Alice Watkins, who carried out the interviews for the report, said,

IMPRESS has been an extraordinary success, particularly so in light of the vast resources of IPSO and its members which include most national newspapers. IPSO also benefits from the support of the Government, which has sought to undermine the Leveson system of independent regulation which IMPRESS is recognised under. The real heroes are the publishers: outlets which believe in high standards, respect their readers and are genuinely committed to the freedom of the press. They are reversing years of declining standards and trust in the industry, and should be celebrated.

gal-dem Head of Editorial, Suyin Haynes, is interviewed for the Report. She said in her interview,

Independent media is so important, to have the plurality of voices and ensuring people’s consumption is varied. So much of British media has led to people feeling disempowered and where independent media really flourishing is by reclaiming that. An outlet like ours shows that ordinary people that may not consider themselves a journalist, everyone has a story to tell.

Shropshire Live Editor Martin Childs, also interviewed, said,

I think when you live in the community you serve, you want to make sure that you are supplying quality content and trustworthy news. We are not a faceless corporate media empire – we are here to provide a service that we hope the community appreciates.And having a formal complaints policy and procedure in place is not only important for the publisher, but also for the public too.

Byline Investigates Editor Graham Johnson on IMPRESS,

IMPRESS are truly independent and aren’t run by the newspapers. They aren’t too involved, and they’re open to having conversations on changes we’d like made. For example, in the arbitration process. It makes each reporter think about regulation, which is important. Which is something you don’t necessarily have to always think about, if you were working for a tabloid.