The quality and coverage of local news will continue to decline without new support from the Government, MPs say today, in a report that warns of the damage a reduction in provision can cause to democracy and society.
report on the sustainability of local journalism outlines how many local publishers, with smaller audiences and reach, have struggled to adapt to the shift away from print towards an online world which favours larger players. Between 2009 and 2019, more than 300 local newspaper titles closed, with surviving news providers often operating with diminished resources and fewer journalists.
The Committee highlights the harmful impact on communities of the resulting decline in access to local news, including a decrease in participation in civic life, less scrutiny of local government decisions and increasing levels of polarisation and misinformation.
To support the sector to adapt to the new market, the report recommends that the Government establishes an innovation fund for news as proposed in the Cairncross Review. It should also explore ways to make it easier for local news publishers to achieve charitable status and encourage more philanthropic funding of local journalism.
More must also be done to ensure that support reaches smaller publishers of local news, and long-awaited digital markets legislation must enable news sites to negotiate a fair commercial relationship with online companies that host their stories, such as Google and Meta.
The Committee also calls for the BBC to reconsider its proposals for its local radio stations to share more content across regions as part of its digital first strategy. The corporation wrote to MPs since the report’s agreement saying they had adapted a number of proposals, although the main changes of concern to the Committee will still go ahead.
Damian Green MP, Acting Chair of the DCMS Committee, said:
“With the shift towards online readership swallowing up traditional print revenues, many local newspapers which have served their communities for years have struggled to keep their heads above water. While hundreds have already folded, those that remain are faced with a lack of resources to conduct quality journalism, forcing them into a downward spiral of decline, as readership and therefore revenues continue to fall further.
The disappearance of local news providers, which have always acted as the eyes and ears of their readers and held local decision makers to account, has ripped a hole in the heart of many communities. Worryingly it is the most deprived areas of the country that are most likely to miss out on coverage, compounding the disadvantages they already face.
While there are many success stories of innovation, the very nature of having smaller audiences and limited reach means local publishers find it hard to float in a market that rewards scale. The sector can have a sustainable future, but without more support and a rebalancing of the rules to help smaller publishers, the decline in local journalism and all the negative impacts associated with it will continue.”
