Communities secretary Eric Pickles is pushing forward with plans to curb town hall ‘pravdas’, with a four-a-year limit on publications.
He has published a revised Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity following a consultation period, which sees his main proposals on council newspapers remain intact.
These include limiting local authorities to producing their publications just four times a year and come despite calls from a select committee of MPs last month to water down the plans, claiming they cut across the coalition government’s ‘localist’ principles.
The new rules are expected to come into force in April and will also prevent councils from hiring lobbyists and prevent council advertising from being politicised.
Mr Pickles said the existing rules had been ‘too weak for too long’ and had left many local newspapers ‘looking over the abyss’.
When he originally announced the plans, he said he wanted to stop councils publishing newspapers in direct competition to the local press.
But the new code has come under fire from the Local Government Association and the National Union of Journalists.
LGA chairman Baroness Margaret Eaton said: “If the Department for Communities and Local Government was truly committed to localism it would not be introducing draconian rules dictating to councils how often they are allowed to share information with residents.
“It is extremely disappointing that ministers have failed to make any significant amendments to the code following consultation, and appear to have ignored the advice of their own MPs.
“Newsletters delivered to people’s homes have consistently proved to be the cheapest way for councils to directly communicate with residents and keep people informed about local services.
“The Communities and Local Government select committee found there was scant evidence of council publications competing unfairly with local newspapers.”
And NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “Today’s announcement is undemocratic and perverse and shows what a sham the consultation really was.
“The committee found no evidence to back up Eric Pickles’ wild assertions – it called for a fair and independent assessment of the impact of such publications on local newspapers.”
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I’m going to be buying shares in all the major newspaper companies because this news surely means the future of print media is bright. This time next year we will be seeing record profits, improved sales and a re-investment in staff and resources. All hail Eric Pickles for single-handedly saving the newspaper industry.
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Local Authorities, as with any public body, should be restricted to publishing factual information not spin, propaganda and self praising rubbish.
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Trust the cravenly left-wing NUJ to back town hall Pravdas. Glad I tore up my membership years ago. Numpties’ Union of Journalists.
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Sticking the boot into town hall newspapers won’t stop the circulation decline of our appalling-managed so-called “commercial owners”. It will stop when our thicko owners start listening to independent management consultants, IBM, Microsoft, etc and stop givingn away online content. Also, is the real reason that town hall newspaper pay something approaching the market rate to their journalists?
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I’m far from being a Tory supporter but Pickles shows he at least has his heart in the right place. Unlike Jeremy Dear – I’m amazed that the NUJ still exists. I stopped funding it years ago because I was fed up with the political bilge it was pumping out in its magazine. This latest comment shows how little it really cares about the interests of its members.
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I’m an NUJ member and will be losing my job, and I appreciated someone on my side. Not all NUJ members work for local newspapers – times have changed, if you hadn’t noticed. I’m pretty certain my ‘paper’ (I’ve added inverted commas, so you don’t have to) hasn’t contributed to the dwindling sales of our nearest rival half so much as lack of investment in editorial has. The ‘local’ paper has been giving adverts away for next to nothing for years because the product is cr*p. We never go off rate card because the product is good at what it does – different to a newspaper, but still good. The local paper will not suddenly flourish once we are gone. The net cost to the council will actually increase, so who wins? And try not to say democracy because that argument does not wash.
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