Important information about current events is read by all people, irrespective of nationality and religion. However, the impact of that information differs for everyone depending on their region, locality and religion. Coverage of a car accident will have an impact on the people living near the site of accident, not on those of other localities or nations. Such news that covers events in a local context is referred to as local news.

Impact of local news is highest on the people involved in the event, while people reading about the event sitting miles away will be least affected. Local news, also known as regional news is area specific. It mainly covers information about the events, incidents and happenings of a particular area. For example, The Courier, a popular newspaper in Scotland covering local news, reports on events happening in Tayside and Fife regions.

As the newspaper only talks about regional events of Scotland, it is not read by people of London. Local news is of value only to people of the target region. News dissemination media for a website, newspaper or television channel are only popular among the locals and are of no importance to people outside that region. All the news dissemination media that cover local topics ensure that all kinds of events happening in the region are covered.

Most people confuse local news with national news, saying that it affects local people of the nation. However, there is the major difference between local and national news. Local news largely covers regarding local politics, local crime, local sports, local business, local weather as well as local entertainment. On the other hand, national news tends to cover wider range of content, especially regarding specialised institutions of widespread international power.

Unlike local news, national news covers stock markets, national or international sports competitions, national or international political and intergovernmental events. National news also covers regional environmental events and defence/security events, which are not covered in local news unless they have a regional relevance.

Being region specific, many times local news is covered by newspapers and other news dissemination media is regional languages. Example, Sing Tao is a daily newspaper aimed at Britain’s and Europe’s Chinese community.The newspaper is written in Chinese language in order to relate with the local people better. Fact that most towns and cities in all countries, be it the UK of the USA, have at least one local newspaper, is enough to state the importance of local news.