Funding to support innovation in the news industry is desperately needed after Covid-19 exposed how much of the sector is still “too wedded to antiquated ways of doing things”, according to a new report.

Nesta, the innovation fund appointed by the Government to manage the Future News Fund, gave £2m to 20 news organisations seeking to find financial sustainability or diversify their readerships this year.

It said the innovation at these organisations, such as Tortoise testing new models for its open “Thinkin” meetings and Open Democracy creating an online database of politicians’ registers of interests, showed “creativity, passion, expertise and collaboration”.