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‘Local newspapers’ problems not our fault’ says BBC boss

The BBC’s director of news has hit back at claims that the problems facing the local newspaper industry are the fault of the corporation.

James Harding said there was “a mistaken view” that the BBC should rein in its coverage of local news coverage so it did not aggravate the difficulties facing the local press.

Speaking at the WT Stead Lecture at the British Library on Monday, he said the BBC was not to blame for the difficulties in the industry, instead saying the problems had come from websites such as Google, Facebook and Amazon.

Former Times editor James was speaking in response to concerns from Home Secretary Theresa May, who said the BBC’s online operation may be harming local newspapers and urged the corporation to “think carefully” about its local presence.

In his speech, James said the BBC’s largest audiences were for its regional TV news bulletins at 6.30pm, which gained around a million more combined viewers than for the national news at 6pm.

He said: “It underscores why the BBC must, if it is to be a public service broadcaster, deliver on its obligation in local news.

“I say this because there is what I consider to be a mistaken view that the BBC should rein in its local news coverage for fear of aggravating the economic woes facing local newspapers.

“We have a direct interest in the health of local newspapers and regional newsrooms. We thrive thanks to vibrant public debate and courtesy of the stories and ideas unearthed by our colleagues in rival news organisations.

“But, let me be clear, the problems facing the local newspaper industry are not the BBC’s fault. The classified advertising market has moved online, but the local newspaper industry’s problems lie with the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Gumtree, Ebay and a long, long tail of others.

“I am acutely concerned by the pressures facing the local newspaper industry and we at the BBC will do anything to help. But the BBC’s primary responsibility must be to serve licence fee payers – and they want and are entitled to the best possible local news services we can deliver.”

At the Society of Editors’ Conference in November, Ms May said she had held talks with her local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, about the future of the industry and had highlighted the BBC as a major factor in the difficulties it faced.

The Home Secretary said that by becoming the dominant player in providing local news online, the corporation had prevented other operators from entering the market, saying it was “enormously difficult for local newspapers to compete”.

10 comments

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  • January 14, 2014 at 12:41 pm
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    No, our problems are not the fault of the BBC. They’re the fault of the short-sighted accountants and terrible senior management.

    However, if the BBC started increasing its local web coverage, it would seriously hurt us.

    It’s current offering is poor value. Fewer and shallower stories than available from most local paper websites.
    Users still come because the BBC brand is strong (and they do fancier stuff with the tech).
    But where’s the actual public service value in that?
    Offering shallow news and drawing people away from more informative, more local and more relevant stuff.

    So either the BBC improves it’s local news web service – which would be anti-competitive – or it should scrap it and save licence fee payers some cash, or better still, spend more on national news – an area where a strong public broadcaster is badly needed to counter the various bias of the national news outlets.

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  • January 14, 2014 at 3:01 pm
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    Harding is right. The BBC were not to blame for Trinity Mirror ditching Port Talbot when they closed the Guardian, leaving the area without a paper, or for Johnston Press shedding 44 per cent of its full time journalists in five years. If local newspapers die, they won’t have been killed off by the BBC or by Google for that matter – but by the vandalism of newspaper owners who were quite happy to see profits roll in during the good times, demanding profit margins of 20 to 35 per cent, building up massive debts and failing to invest in the future.

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  • January 14, 2014 at 6:31 pm
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    Interesting quote though: We thrive…courtesy of the stories and ideas unearthed by our colleagues in rival news organisations.
    Or, we need local newspapers because that’s where we get our stories. Is that what he’s saying?

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  • January 14, 2014 at 7:47 pm
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    One of the main reasons for the decline of local newspapers is that they give the news away on their websites. Who can blame the public for not wanting to pay up to £1 for a paper when they can read it online for nothing? It’s like a solicitor having a DIY conveyancing kit on their website. Suicidal.

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  • January 15, 2014 at 12:40 am
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    Uneven playing field:
    BBC – never-ending source of public money and no accountability. Biased.
    Local papers – commercial funding difficult in current economic climate, unbiased and accountable.
    So hardly a balanced argument, like comparing apples with oranges.

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  • January 15, 2014 at 9:59 am
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    BBC, the answer is simple: Stop stealing stories from local newspapers and find your own.
    And invest youir funds in the world service, your correspondents’ reporting from Bahrain is appalling.

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  • January 15, 2014 at 10:00 am
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    MC48 has hit the nail on the head. Local newspaper sales have been hit since papers put their stories on the web, often before the stories were in print.
    At the regional daily where I worked for many years stories were only put on the web when the first edition had gone. That has now changed.
    Why buy the paper when you can see everything on the web?

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  • January 15, 2014 at 10:34 am
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    It’s not the lack of sales that is killing off newspapers – in fact, there is a lot to be said for free papers. Advertising is increasingly king so the more people you can reach, the better. A freebie can easily have a much greater circulation than a paid-for. This makes online news irrelevant as it is now all free – what is crucial is grabbing that all-important advertising revenue and newspapers can have the edge here over online businesses if they’re savvy as they can be more local and attract the smaller advertisers. Oh and the Beeb doesn’t have advertising.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 10:53 am
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    Much traditional news from the regions is dead. You don’t have accidents like you used to have..spectacular fires, shipwrecks, aeroplane crashes etc etc. Health and Safety is partly to blame ( I am being facetious), so there’s not much to read about.
    I found an old copy of Whitaker’s Almanac in the office dustbin (1970). Just look at all the incidents in the Diary of Events page.
    Local BBC news covers too wide a regional area to be a threat to evenings and weeklies. All the money for the BBC goes on London.
    Newspaper editors should wake up. They don’t report industrial tribunals, county courts, published wills, and much else besides. Much Crown Court copy is only reported if the police PR departments hand it to reporters on a plate.
    When I was a young cub complaining about reporting on a boring tribunal the editor told me: “Men fought and died in the war for the right for us to tell people what is going on.”
    A bit dramatic maybe, but that kind of thinking is now long gone in the world of corporate publishing.
    People are so cynical there are no causes to fight for in Britain’s one-party system.
    Having been drip fed mind-numbing rubbish for so long, I doubt if the British public would be interested in “hard news” any more.
    Anything superficial and gimmicky is what turns the public on today, and that rules newspapers out.

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