Up to 200 journalists could eventually be employed in the planned local democracy reporting partnership between the regional press and the BBC, it has emerged.
The corporation and News Media Association have officially been given the green light to create 150 taxpayer-funded public service reporters, who will be employed by regional press groups to cover councils and other public bodies from this summer.
The BBC and NMA have now further suggested the number of journalists employed by the scheme, which will see reporters supply copy to both the BBC and local newspapers, could rise to 200 in 2019, depending on its success.
The extra 50 could be funded from a number of different sources, including revenues raised by the participating news media groups from advertising against video content provided to them by a BBC news bank.
The news bank is set to become operational later this year as part of the scheme, and will allow participating groups access to BBC video and audio material shortly after transmission.
The partnership has further announced the creation of a BBC-funded data journalism hub to be run by seconded staff from the local news industry.
All the plans will be funded by an investment from the BBC Licence Fee of up to £8million a year for the duration of the new Royal Charter and will be subject to joint annual review by the BBC and NMA.
James Harding, pictured above left, BBC News and Current Affairs director, said: “As more power is devolved across the UK, it’s more important than ever that we cover, understand and hold to account local politicians and public services.
“The BBC has worked hard with local news organisations to develop a scheme that gives an opportunity to a new generation of reporters and strengthens the local news coverage for all our audiences.”
An independent audit of local news content will also be carried out as part of the scheme in order to identify potential crossover between the BBC and other organisations, which will help the corporation review and improve its linking and attribution of stories and sources.
NMA chairman Ashley Highfield said: “This groundbreaking partnership will enhance democracy at a local level by increasing and strengthening coverage of local authorities and public services, while maintaining the healthy competition between different news sources.”
“Local newspapers in print and digital have a unique and highly trusted relationship with the communities they serve. This agreement will enable the BBC to benefit from our first-class local journalism, and the local news sector to be fairly rewarded for its content within an appropriate and robust framework.”
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Great news, I hope the BBC employs these people along normal lines though and not through their usual nonsense of having a five day contract and hoping to impress a producer called Jasper so you can get a three month contract.
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The BBC is killing newspapers. It’s 2017. Just privatise it or implement a subscription model.
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Newspaper management are killing newspapers.
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My local council would come out in a rash if it saw a reporter from my weekly, so this can only be an improvement on present dire coverage.
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This is a brilliant idea, and it may be the saving of local democracy and accountability. But the BBC and the taxpayers should not have to fund it, while greedy, incompetent newspaper groups continue to make silly money by slashing the service they give to their readers. To blame the BBC for killing newspapers is like blaming ambulance crews for the queues at A&E!
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I’m very nervous about this. I fear that some greedy publishing groups will just see it as an excuse to abandon public service journalism altogether.
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Most of them already have, Mike. This way at least, the readers still get their essential service. And dedicated reporters might be a bit more au fait with the stuff they are reporting on than a trainee fitting it in among the clickbait & the press releases. Still shouldn’t have to happen, though.
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Gladamoutofit is right Mike. I know a PR manager at a housing association who says they no longer get any coverage at all because they’re based in the poorer area of the city, with its resources instead focussed on the trendy bars and eatery crowd instead.
Local newspapers are only going in one direction, a big part of that is down to choice, and if it needs to come out of the public purse to keep an eye on democracy then so be it, I’m happy to pay my fee for something like this, more than happy. As I say, I just hope these jobs are advertised and hired for in the right way, I have serious reservations about the way the beeb normally goes about recruitment, interns and unmarried posh kids agogo.
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Newspapers will still find some reason to slate the BBC despite it now being the lifeline for the cornerstone of local democracy. I just hope that these reporters work to the standards expected of BBC staff rather than the those of the papers that saw experienced sub editors as just another overhead.
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These journalists are needed in the roles specified. But, they should be independent with their stories published on community websites. Why should taxpayers fund staff for newspaper groups who can afford to pay six-figure salaries to layers of management? Will more journalists, designers etc now be sacked so the fat-cats can seek more taxpayer funded replacements “in the interests of democracy” etc?
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Quite.
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Lots of fancy talk about “local democracy reporting”, “news banks” and “public service reporters”. The truth is the BBC has fed off the local press as its key resource for grassroots breaking stories for generations. Now that resource is fast disappearing, it is making a token effort to prop it up. Let’s not forget, too, that NMA Chairman Ashley Highfield also has a day job, as chief exec of Johnston Press, the publisher which, under his “leadership”, has done the most to undermine local newspapers by repeatedly stripping away their resources.
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