Regional press leaders have strongly criticised plans by the BBC to share content with local newspapers by creating a pool of 100 “public service reporters.”
BBC Director-General Tony Hall announced proposals on Monday for the creation of a team of 100 reporters to provide coverage of councils and public services for both the corporation and commercial news outlets.
But the plans have been given a decisive thumbs-down from regional publishing bosses who have accused the corporation of “back door expansionism.”
Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, said he had “a lot of concerns” about the announcement.
He said: “Our concern from a regional newspaper publisher perspective is that this could be some kind of Trojan horse under the guise of the BBC trying to be helpful, ie potentially it provides the mechanism for the BBC to recruit more local journalists through the back door and come into markets that we believe are already very well served by the thousands of journalists employed in doing great work for independent local news publishers.
Henry, pictured above, added there was no need for the BBC to assist regional publishers with their web traffic and he thought it was trying to come up with a “solution to a problem that doesn’t exist”.
Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield, who is vice-chairman of the News Media Association, said the plans amount to “BBC expansion into local news provision”.
“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the BBC’s proposal – to create a network of 100 local public service reporters for towns and cities ‘run by the BBC’ and with the BBC itself able to ‘compete to win the contract’ – are anything other than BBC expansion into local news provision and recruitment of more BBC local journalists through the back door,” he said.
“The local newspaper sector already employs thousands of journalists and is the only reliable source of independent and trusted local news across the UK.”
“The BBC could benefit by tapping into this pool of local news through a system of arms-length content commissioning along the lines of independent production quotas.”
South Wales Argus editor Kevin Ward also hit out at what he called “expansionism hidden behind a paternalistic smile” in an editorial comment about the proposals.
Wrote Kevin: “The BBC has increased its local online output in recent years, often using news culled from local newspapers and often to the detriment of those original sources.
“Auntie’s answer to this is to employ 100 journalists around the UK to cover courts and councils with their stories made available to local newspapers. Its intention is to be ‘helpful’.
“Local newspapers like the Argus already send reporters to court hearings and council meetings on a daily basis. Far from being helpful, the BBC’s proposal simply offers more competition paid for by the public purse.”
Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors said: “It is good that that the BBC wants to co-operate rather than compete but in a partnership both sides have to benefit. The devil will be in the detail of how it can be achieved.
“Many editors would dispute the myth that courts and councils are not covered and may be happy to consider supplying news to the BBC on a commercial basis.
“There is also concern that, through its websites, the BBC could invade territory that is the lifeblood of local papers and their increasingly popular websites.
“The BBC does not have the time in broadcast bulletins to provide the in-depth detailed local coverage offered by local papers but its online operations are seen as a threat.”
The BBC’s announcement, part of its plans for charter renewal, came after long-standing criticisms from within the regional press about the role the corporation has played in the difficulties facing the industry.
Its proposals also include creating a hub for data journalism and setting up a “News Bank” of local video and audio content which could be accessed by local newspapers.
Speaking on Monday, Lord Hall said the BBC would be opened up to other news providers through a new partnership, with the aim of helping local journalism to “thrive”.
He said: ”In future, the BBC would set aside licence fee funding to invest in a service that reports on Councils, courts and public services. And we would make available our regional video and local audio for immediate use on the internet services of local and regional news organisations.”
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More whinging and whining from the big newspaper groups. Tell you what, why don’t they try taking on 100 new journalists and sack the suits who are running down the industry.
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Ashley Highfield said: “The BBC could benefit by tapping into this pool of local news through a system of arms-length content commissioning along the lines of independent production quotas.”
The only thing that needs keeping at “arms length” is you, Ash.
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‘Regional press leaders………’
Sigh!
Melchetts to a man…..(sorry, forgot Sly) and woman…
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I find their predictable default mode of knocking any bold initiative via HTFP depressing.
Why don’t these hackneyed old has been Luddite road blocks stop harking back to the so-called golden days of the local press and step aside and let dynamic young bloods like the divine Lord Tony through?
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I’m a bit perplexed by our industry’s reaction. I’ve been around for a decade in it, and have seen cull after cull of reporters who gather court and council stories, and photographers producing pictures to go alongside them. And all the while hearing the chiefs saying it’ll be fine, the void will be filled, the public will send us stories and pictures, and we can pinch it from the BBC. Well now its handed on a plate by the great Aunty, and they throw it back in her face! The BBC will create jobs in a sector dismantled by regional publishers by way of their constant newsroom de-structuring.
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If we all stopped paying our licence fee there’s not a thing the BBC could do about it!
The BBC should spend its money on broadcasting (the clue’s in the initials) not publishing!
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Sorry, our money!
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Poor old Beeb. Can’t win, can it? It’s accused of nicking local papers’ stuff & when it suggests reversing the process it gets attacked again.
The sheer, unmitigated hypocrisy of Faure-Walker & Highfield is breathtaking. Their papers no longer have the staffing levels & expertise to do the vital job that the BBC is offering to do, and they have no intention of improving things any time soon – costs money, you see.
From the point of view of a reader who cares about what goes on locally, I’d love a team of well-paid, experienced, senior reporters covering my patch for the local press, whoever pays them. They can’t afford it, they say – but the Beeb can, so why not let it?
My local NQ paper got rid of its last proper senior reporter a month ago & although they are advertising for a replacement, you can bet they aren’t looking for one with his experience & local knowledge. A wet-behind-the-ears near senior from somewhere the other side of the country who is prepared to do listicles for peanuts, & daren’t stand up for the important stuff even if h/she can spot it, is my bet.
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Surprised at all of the pro BBC comments…… I dislike them with a real passion and they have done more to kill off the jobs of staff and freelance journos and photographers, trying to earn a living, than any other organisation in this country, with their free at any cost culture…… Get the BBC to pay for all of the content it steals under its rights and copyright grabbing before worrying about anything else…….
I can not make my thoughts known on these big newspaper groups, as it would not be printed, but they are as two faced as anything I have ever come across, and greed is the only word in their dictionary…..
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Who on earth ever “nicks” content from the BBC?! Anyone who has ever worked in local newspaper journalism knows the Beeb pseudo-hacks constantly raid the local paper for their content – and often broadcast it to the public first thing before anyone has had chance to leave the house to even look for a paper. The BBC regional websites are rubbish and no legitimate competition really.
My only concern is that it would be an excuse for the fat cats quoted here to sack more actual journalists and rely instead on the useless student-paper-standard reporters they BBC currently use, who have little to no idea how to find a story themselves and even less how to dig through council/corporate spin.
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Why are Johnston Press poking their noses into what the BBC do?
Johnston Press have got rid of the majority of reporters and photographers, so why cannot the BBC employ people to do the same work?
It is not the BBC’s fault that Johnston Press went on a wreckless acquisition spree of biblical proportions, paying over the odds for newspapers up and down the country and over in Ireland and are still feeling the effects.
It is not the BBC’s fault that all they want to do is to do some quality journalism that Johnston Press seem unable to do.
It is not the BBC’s fault that our local newspapers have virtually lost all quality journalism. In fact JP have lost everything to do with quality… the papers they now put out are dreadful – copy and pasted press releases, full of JP reader travel adverts, full of JP dealmonster adverts, full of poor quality photographs and distinctly lacking any form of criticism against anyone – it is as if all the editors have been gagged. The online content is awful and heavily tied in with popups, adverts, deals and the like – my Ghostery popup blocker blocks dozens of items from my local JP newspaper (they are not getting any of my money!).
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The BBC simply hasn’t a clue how to respond to the fragmentation of its audience. They’re striving to be all things to everyone and James Harding in news wants to grow his empire by trying to do local news journalism properly. But the BBC simply cannot provide the level of resource required to do that and the independent local press already does this well. The vast majority of job losses in the local press are from the production side, not reporting. Most local paper newsrooms have generally retained reporting staffs, it’s the sub editors and production people who have lost out. More recently technology has enabled publishers to reduce and in some cases eliminate photographers because of the explosion in the number of smartphones around. And anyone who says you can’t capture the vast majority of pics that one finds published in local papers on a modern smartphone is, frankly, talking rubbish. There is a place for professional photography in local newspapers but these days it is commissioned from freelance suppliers who work across a much broader geography.
Back to the BBC – they should be commissioning and paying for content from regional press suppliers. This way they’d get access to a much broader range of content, there’d be far less duplication of effort and much greater efficiency for the licence fee paying public.
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Rob Wales: If you hate the BBC for its “theft” & your views on the newspaper groups are unprintable, what is your solution?
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Incredible! The big groups are destroying the news outlets they own at a rate of knots but they don’t want anyone else to the job they are effectively giving up with all these staff cuts. I suspect their real fear is that any content sharing deal would hit their web traffic, and their revenue, as readers could get the news from The BBC without the pain of being bombarde adv
erts. As for the BBC getting stories from the local rags, everybody pinches from everybody else, particularly now when the number of hacks on the ground is shrinking.
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Bombarded by adverts
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In my opinion Newsquest has recently done far more damage to local journalism, by way of its recent reorganisations, than the BBC can ever do. As some have already said, it is very hypocritical for these execs, who continue to cut jobs in newsrooms around the country, to now feign concern about the future of independent journalism.
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The BBC is parking its tanks on the lawns of the big regional newspaper groups purely because they’ve seen the door has been left open for them by newspaper bosses who have decimated their own operations.
The Beeb is looking for ways to appease its political paymasters and has been presented with an open goal. Who can blame it for snatching the chance in a dog eat dog world?
All the bleating from Highfield and Co won’t make the slightest difference.
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If this happened, I’d apply for the job. Give me a choice between staying at my local paper where I’m increasingly forced to sit in an office writing listicles about things that sound sexy when said in the local accent (really), and a job where my brief is to ‘rove’ and go to council/court and file copy, I’d choose the latter every day.
Since the regional papers are giving up on court and council why the big fuss about someone else thinking of taking on the job? Particularly since the copy would then be provided to the regional press…
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If Sky suggested something similar there would be screams of anguish about the Murdoch Empire, so how come it is OK for the BBC to try to intrude into areas where it is not needed and is more likely to kill off newspapers and their websites. About as useful to the average member of the public as their plans to launch a North Korea service
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They’re not RUNNING the industry Sub Up North. They’re RUINING it.
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BBC regional newsrooms stealing copy from local rags.(Hmm)
Local rags filing rubbish because all the good reporters have left.
Sounds a great combination.
Look forward to more laughs on HTFP.
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This must be first time a Newsquest CEO has ever spoken to the media. Perhaps if the company, and others, decided to invest in journalism they may have less to complain about. Maintaining profit margins seems to be more important than the survival of the newspapers they own.
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I bet the BBC reporters wouldn’t be doing the bread and butter stuff but just assume they can do the more important stories better than anyone else.
If BBC hacks are reporting then it will still offer the excuse for newspapers bosses to cut newsroom numbers.
The BBC should be out of local news altogether. It isn’t as if they’re better at it than local papers really, is it?
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