A report commissioned by regional publishers has claimed the industry is an “important defence” against the rise of celebrity gossip and “Buzzfeed-esque lists” within journalism.

The News Media Association, which represents regional and national publishers, asked media consultants Oliver & Ohlbaum to produce the report into the current media landscape ahead of the BBC’s charter renewal.

As well as examining the BBC’s role within the 21st century news market, it highlights the role of the regional press in producing “agenda-driving journalism” in a media market dominated by “social media snippets” and listicles.

It also describes independent commercially-funded news outlets as a “national resource” whose importance “should not be underestimated.”

The report cited recent campaigning work by the Yorkshire Evening Post, Eastern Daily Press, Southern Daily Echo and the Express & Star, Wolverhampton, as examples of journalism that the BBC “would find hard to replicate”.

“In a news market increasingly open to global influences, our ability to retain a range of strong, well-funded and competitively motivated domestic news outlets is important for citizen engagement and democratic accountability.” it says.

“A future news market reduced to social media snippets and Buzzfeed-esque lists, is not likely to serve UK citizens as effectively and may not instinctively place UK issues at the heart of the daily news cycle.

“Our indigenous national and local press could therefore also be seen as an important resource in defending the UK news media mix and in continuing to place UK issues ahead of the latest global celebrity gossip.”

The report also outlines a number of suggestions which would see the corporation collaborate further with local newspapers across the country.

Among the suggestions are for further content-sharing deals between the BBC and regional press, with the possibility of splitting the costs of reporting of public institutions touted.

The report also echoed July’s call by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for the corporation to credit stories sourced from the local press.

And it encourages the BBC to be “open” to the idea of paying for regional press content where would be a “clear efficiency benefit” to doing so, such as with local sports reporting.

Just over a month ago, BBC director-general Tony Hall suggested the corporation could pay local newspapers for stories.

In April the BBC announced it would introduce a content-sharing deal with regional newspapers across England, which lets papers choose which online stories they wanted to be linked from the BBC’s live web feed each day.

Ashley Highfield, NMA vice chairman and Johnston Press chief executive, said: “The UK’s news media landscape will be best served by a BBC which genuinely collaborates with news media publishers rather than competing with them.

“This would make far better use of the BBC’s stretched resources while allowing space for commercial news media to innovate and thrive.

“The BBC repeatedly seeks to portray itself as a willing partner but all too often fails to deliver.

“The O&O report outlines a framework for cooperation through content-sharing targets and effective governance to enable the BBC to focus on what it is good at and make a positive contribution to a diverse UK media industry.”