In 2019 Facebook launched a £4.5m project to pay for 82 reporters to cover under-served communities in the UK. Here Martin Wright, editor in chief of Midland News Association, reflects on what the scheme has achieved.

When the Community News Project was conceived in late 2018, we had a lot of questions. How would it work? How hands-on would Facebook be? What would happen to the reporters once their contracts ended? Would the copy be for social media or could we use it in print? Would the copy be any good? And, perhaps most importantly, what impact would it have on our newsrooms – and our output?

Two and a half years on, we are in a much better position to answer those questions. While the project has thrown up challenges, it has met the original brief: introduce more diversity into the newsroom; and improve coverage of under-served communities.