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Trinity Mirror chief's concerns over BBC's ultra-local plans

Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey has added her voice to concerns over the BBC’s plans to go ‘ultra-local’.

The Corporation has been planning to roll out the more local online service for some time but Ms Bailey feels it could damage regional and local newspapers.

She was giving evidence to the House of Lords Communications Committee yesterday as part of its investigation into media ownership.

She said Trinity Mirror’s concerns were that if the BBC moved more local, it could distort the market and make it more difficult to enter as the Corporation didn’t have the same commercial constraints as TM.

Ms Bailey also told the Lords committee that competition law should be relaxed as it was threatening newspapers, and that The Mirror was unlikely to switch its allegiance from Labour despite the party’s falling popularity.

Also appearing before the Committee was Lord Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail and General Trust which owns Northcliffe Newspapers.

He told Lords that he would not interfere in editorial policy at the Daily Mail even if the paper decided to back the European Union or support legalisation of cannabis.

Comments

justahack (21/05/2008 22:23:51)
Maybe local/regional newspaper publishers shouldn’t be constantly making cutbacks, but trying to ape the BBC with website video made by journos paid nothing more for more work?
Maybe the BBC will do ‘ultra-local’ better than local newspapers?
Maybe the BBC will take on a few good local newspaper journos at better pay rates than they get already?
Maybe we are just returning to the days when the BBC had many local radio stations serving their licence payers?
Maybe publishers should invest in their papers instead of just whinging at the BBC?