Council Publications Are "A Threat to Democracy"
MPs urge councils to support local media, not compete with it
Council publications such as Around Ealing and H&F News, billed by Hammersmith and Fulham Council as "Hammersmith & Fulham’s leading newspaper" have come under fire this week.
MP Ed Balls has spoken out against Councils that "undermine local media outlets by trying to compete for readers and advertising revenue with their own publications and websites".
The credit crunch has hit local newspapers hard with the Ealing Times becoming the first casualty. Trinity Mirror, who publish the Ealing Gazette series (which includes a Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith edition) have cut many jobs and centralised journalists and photographers who cover a huge area, including Surrey, Buckinghamshire, and north, south, east and west London.
At a Newspaper Conference event in Westminster, the Newspaper Society questioned moves by local authorities, which it said were "increasingly seeking to supplant the role of local newspapers by producing publications and websites offering ‘independent’ local news and competing head-to-head with local media companies for third party advertising revenues".
The Society warned that in some areas, such moves could result in a council publication becoming the only source of local news and posing a threat to democracy.
H&F News, Hammersmith and Fulham Council's twice-monthly publication currently claims a wider circulation and readership than any other local publication in circulation.
Andy Slaughter, the MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush, spoke in the House of Commons this week about the issue.
He thinks the expansion of such publications is a threat to democracy: "[Local Authority publications] provide desperately unfair competition. Local authorities have huge resources with which to pay the hidden costs. They pay two or three times the amount to the journalist, and their terms and conditions are marvellous compared with those of the local press. All the costs of distribution, overheads and so forth are hidden. We are talking about hundreds, if not millions, of pounds of expenditure on promotional activity of such a kind. That is bad."
He said local newspapers no longer cover their local area in depth: "There are a couple of pages of local news, and then one suddenly finds oneself in... what is effectively syndicated and generalised news. For that reason, sales inevitably go down. The successful newspapers that remain in London are the ones that contain genuinely local news that people wish to read."
Mr Slaughter also slammed publications produced by local authorities. "All local authorities publish what is effectively political propaganda to keep the ruling party in power. Probably the only thing on which I agree with Boris Johnson is getting rid of The Londoner. He did that because it was absolutely useless.
"In an aggressive marketing campaign, Hammersmith and Fulham council can say, “Your local press sells 3,000 copies a week, we can deliver 80,000 copies free through your door, and we will give free personal ads and we will undercut any of the advertising rates.” Of course, that will lead to the demise of the local press. One may say that that is sad, but it is the way of the world."
H&F Council Leader, Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, defended the Council's publication, saying: "H&F News reaches 84,694 homes and businesses where as the three other newspapers in our borough do not even reach 5,000 homes between them. With a quarter of billion pound budget it is imperative that we communicate to residents how we are spending their money.
"We also have a role to promote local community groups, business, sport and art which we do very successfully in the newspaper. Our surveys show that residents enjoy reading H&F News and we have been able to increase frequency from monthly to fortnightly at no extra cost to the taxpayer by substantially increasing revenue from advertising.
"Research from the Taxpayers Alliance shows we actually spend less on communications than we did 10 years ago. In essence, we are improving the way we communicate to residents while lowering the cost of doing so."
Mr Balls said at the Newspaper Conference: "It is vital for the identity and aspirations of these communities that local newspapers are strong and flourish…While there are clear competition rules about what public and private sectors can do, I think any local area which is making decisions which are undermining, actively, local newspapers, I think that would be a retrograde thing to do.
"The strong message from the centre of government is that all ministers should make sure they’re doing everything they can to support regional media, which is well-read and trusted…and provides a vital service."
Regional media are "the most trusted source of advice and information on what’s going on in local communities," he added.
January 23, 2009
