The BBC’s Local News Partnership — a project to support local and hyperlocal media through access to extra content and staff — has just opened up applications to its second stage.

The ‘Section Two’ stage is focused on contracts for Local Democracy Reporters — but applicants can also now just complete the ‘Section One’ application to receive BBC content.

That content now includes data journalism from the BBC’s Shared Data Unit, based in Birmingham, whose first story went live this month.

Publishers who had already joined the scheme had access to the data and a briefing document ahead of an agreed publication date.

Over a dozen publications ran stories on the day, ranging from the Carlisle News & Star to the Wear Valley Advertiser.

Non-partners can also use data from the unit’s work: both were linked to from the BBC story based on the data, and included on a GitHub repo.

Criteria for selection are available on the BBC website and applications can be made through a link at the bottom of the LNP page to the BBC Supplier Portal. Matthew Barraclough, the head of Local News Partnerships, explained more about the scheme in a post last month.  Journalism.co.uk has more details.

Although Section Two applications close in October I’m told that Section 1 approval via a form on the web will continue to take place, with the scheme open to new partners.