Finding Local Content
Local News
The "Local news from {town}" card on each town's page surfaces recent headlines from local newspaper mastheads that cover that town. It's separate from the historical newspaper feature (Historical Glimpses) — Local News is for current stories.
Time to read: 3 minutes
What You'll See
On a town's main page, scroll past the council noticeboard. When this town has been mapped to at least one local masthead, you'll see a card titled "Local news from {town}" with up to eight recent headlines. Each entry shows:
- Headline — Article title from the masthead's RSS feed
- Masthead — Which paper the story ran in (e.g., "The Border Mail")
- Time — How recently it was published ("3h ago", "2d ago", "1w ago")
- Excerpt — A short description if the RSS feed provides one
Tapping any headline opens the full article on the masthead's own website in a new tab. Loclie doesn't reproduce articles — we just surface the RSS-published headline and link back.
Coverage by Masthead
Each town is mapped to one or more newspaper mastheads that cover it. Mastheads have two coverage tiers:
| Coverage | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Primary | The masthead's home patch — its newsroom focuses on this town |
| Regional | The masthead covers this town as part of a broader regional beat |
When a town has multiple mastheads (e.g. a regional daily covers it plus a smaller local weekly), the card orders headlines so the primary masthead's stories appear first within the time-ordered list.
Mastheads at launch
Loclie launches with two NSW Riverina mastheads in the RSS catalogue:
| Masthead | Catchment |
|---|---|
| The Border Mail | Albury / Wodonga and surrounding towns |
| Riverine Herald | Echuca / Moama / Tocumwal area |
More mastheads will be added over time as we expand coverage beyond the Berrigan Shire pilot.
Why Some Towns Have No Local News Card
Two reasons the card might not appear:
- No mapped masthead — A town only sees Local News once at least one masthead has been mapped to it editorially. Without a mapping, the card auto-hides rather than showing an empty state.
- No recent headlines — Even when a masthead is mapped, the card hides if there are no articles in the cache yet (e.g. brand-new masthead just added, RSS feed temporarily down). The next poll will populate it.
This is intentional — we'd rather hide than show a misleading or empty card.
How Often It Updates
Loclie polls each active masthead's RSS feed every 30 minutes. New headlines typically appear on town pages within an hour of being published on the masthead's site. Dedup happens via a content hash so the same article syndicated under multiple URLs (canonical, AMP, partner) only shows once.
Privacy and Linking
Loclie never republishes articles. The card shows the headline, masthead name, time, and an optional excerpt that the RSS feed itself includes. Tapping a headline takes you straight to the masthead's own website where you read the full article. Loclie is a directory pointing back to the publisher, not a content host.
Attribution is shown in the card footer:
Sourced from {masthead names}. Headlines link back to the original publishers.
Tracking when you tap a headline: standard browser referrer (the link came from loclie.com.au) so the publisher sees the click attribution. Loclie itself doesn't add any tracking to outbound links beyond the default target="_blank" open-in-new-tab behaviour.
For Loclie Admins
The RSS engine runs as the local-news-poll Inngest job. Mastheads live in the news_mastheads table; town mappings live in masthead_town_assignments; cached articles in local_news_articles (deduped by content hash via UNIQUE on (masthead_id, content_hash)).
To add a town to a masthead's coverage:
- Confirm the masthead's
idfromnews_mastheads - Find the town's
idfromtowns(lookup by slug) - Insert a row into
masthead_town_assignmentswithcoverage = 'primary'for the masthead's home patch or'regional'for adjacent coverage - The town's page picks up the change on next render (no cache invalidation needed)
To add a new masthead:
- Insert a row into
news_mastheadswith the RSS URL and attribution string - The next polling cycle (within 30 minutes) will start fetching and caching articles
- Add at least one row to
masthead_town_assignmentsfor the masthead to actually surface anywhere
Operator visibility: news_mastheads.last_polled_at and last_error get updated every poll, so you can spot a dead RSS feed from the table without consulting the Inngest dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why don't I see news for my town?
Most likely the town hasn't been editorially mapped to any masthead yet. Loclie's launch coverage is the Riverina; other regions will gain coverage as mastheads are mapped over time.
Can I suggest a masthead Loclie should add?
Yes — email team@loclie.com.au with the masthead name and its public RSS URL. We're particularly interested in regional and community mastheads.
Why is the headline excerpt sometimes missing?
The excerpt comes directly from the masthead's RSS feed. Some mastheads only include the title in their feed (not a description). Where the description is missing, the card shows just the headline + time.
Why are some headlines days or weeks old?
The RSS feed reflects what the masthead chooses to publish. Smaller mastheads update less frequently, so older headlines stay visible until newer ones come in. Headlines older than ~2 weeks have a date stamp (e.g. "12 May 2026") instead of "Xd ago" for readability.
Can I filter by masthead or topic?
Not in the v1 surface. If a town has multiple mastheads, all their headlines mix together ordered by coverage tier + recency. A filter chip is on the roadmap.
Next Steps
- Historical Glimpses — Pre-1955 newspaper mentions for the same town (out-of-copyright archive material)
- Navigating Loclie — Tour of the town page
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