People often ask us a very fair question. If the Bedford Independent is run by a small team that is stretched thin, why do we not just allow people to self-upload their own articles?
The simple answer is that it diminishes trust in journalism.
Since 2022, at least one large regional publisher in the UK now forces PR teams and community groups to upload their own press releases to an online portal.
Read: Charities and PRs get bylines as publisher launches story submission service (Hold the Front Page)
Their reporters have actually been instructed to stop writing up press releases altogether.
Independent publishers like Progress Publishing, who are behind the Bedford Independent and Bedford Clanger, have completely rejected this idea, and here is why.
The problem with bylines and PR spin
When a story is self-uploaded, it usually gets a generic ‘contributor’ byline. There is rarely any explanation of what that actually means.
Readers have no idea whether the author is a neutral local reporter, a member of a PR agency, the subject of the story themselves, or if they have a political agenda.
As part of our media literacy project, we explain exactly what our bylines mean. Honesty about who writes the news is the absolute foundation of responsible publishing.
Read: Who writes the news? A guide to bylines used by responsible newspapers (and what they tell you)
By simply publishing self-uploaded content, the scope for independent oversight is removed.
There is no challenge to claims made, no balance added, and rarely any context or links to previous related news for background.
And despite claims that an editor will review an article before it is published, inaccuracies and misunderstandings, some often basic, easily slip through.
A local newspaper should be doing all it can to make sure its readers are fully informed and must work hard to avoid publishing basic errors about the place it calls home.
Supporting local business properly
One of our founding principles is to champion and support our local businesses. But allowing them to self-upload unvetted text does them a massive disservice in the long run.
When a local business or charity sends us a media release, we do not ignore it, but we also don’t tell them to do our job for us.
We look at what they have sent, contact the sender to get more context if needed, seek balance if appropriate and collect further information to help keep our readers fully informed.
Then we rewrite the story properly.
We remove the hyperbole and PR puff, and we make sure it actually reads like the engaging piece of local news that our audience deserves.
Quality over quickness
And research shows that this must be a priority for responsible news publications.
According to the 2026 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, public trust in UK news overall has fallen to a decade low of just 30%. Yet trust in regional and local newsbrands remains significantly higher at 52%.
Further research by the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) shows that communities rely heavily on independent local news to combat misinformation.
Their latest report highlights that independent providers are now the only thing preventing many UK districts from becoming complete news deserts.
Automating the publishing process destroys that hard-earned trust.
Taking the approach adopted by publishers like us means we might not always be the very first to hit publish. We might take a bit longer than titles that rely on copy-and-paste uploads.
But when you read something in the Bedford Independent, you know it has gone through a proper third-party editorial process. If a claim needs checking, we check it. Above all, you know it is accurate.
Putting our readers first
I recently became one of the first accredited ethical journalists in the UK. This was through a rigorous new programme developed by our press regulator, Impress, alongside the University of Huddersfield.
Read: Bedford Independent editor among first accredited ethical journalists in UK
This accreditation is not just a piece of paper. It is a public commitment that we put our readers before absolutely everything else.
Impress is the UK’s only press regulator recognised under the Royal Charter system. Their Standards Code is built entirely around rebuilding public trust through strict accountability and transparency.
Being an accredited ethical journalist means making conscious decisions every single day about fairness and accuracy. It means showing our workings and remaining open to challenge.
Any publication that refuses to let itself be scrutinised has no right to say it works in the best interest of its readers.
Real journalism takes real people
Corporate publishers claim self-upload portals give their reporters time to do more investigative work, yet there doesn’t appear to be any real evidence to back this up.
Even the PR industry agrees this is bad practice. Both the PRCA and CIPR have expressed real concern about these submission portals.
Read: Publisher’s press release ban sparks concern (PR Week)
They know good media relations relies on journalists scrutinising stories and asking questions. We are not an automated noticeboard.
As for those working for the readers of the Bedford Independent and other independent titles, we are journalists, not churnalists.
Community
While we will always review, research and rewrite for our own publications, we still want those who need it to have a platform to promote themselves directly so they have as much promotion as possible.
That is exactly why we continue to run our community Facebook group, We Are Bedford, with this in mind.
It has well over 110,000 members, and local charities and non-profits can share their updates there directly. Businesses can also respond to questions from members who ask about a service they may provide.
While these have to be done from a personal profile, this works because it is entirely transparent.
Everyone knows it is a community post and not an advert disguised as editorial, even if they don’t know the person posting the content.
Doing things properly means our small team is constantly busy, but our commitment will always be quality over quantity.
That is how we keep serving Bedford with news people can actually rely on.
To learn more about how we work and why ethical standards matter, take a look at our Media Literacy Project.
Read: Media Literacy Project: A guide to how journalism works and why it needs your support
And if you have a press release to share, simply send it to news@BedfordIndependent.co.uk. We read and consider them all.
And while it might not appear on our pages quite as quickly as an automated upload, you can be sure that when it does, it will be accurate, fair, and written with the care your story actually deserves.
