A journalists’ union has leapt to the defence of council newspapers despite industry concerns that they are competing with the regional press.
Local government secretary Eric Pickles is seeking to clamp down on so-called ‘Town Hall Pravdas’ by limiting their frequency to four a year.
But the National Union of Journalists has come out strongly against the idea, saying the plan “must be resisted.”
Its stance is certain to cause controversy in the industry with the Newspaper Society estimating local authority publications are costing the local press millions of pounds in lost ad revenues.
The union made known its oppostion to Mr Pickles proposals in a press statement issued today headed: “Hands off council newspapers, says NUJ.”
It said that a 2010 Audit Commission reprt had “debunked” the idea that council newspapers represented unfair competition for the local press.
General secrerary Michelle Stanistreet said: “The NUJ sees no case at all for Eric Pickles and future secretaries of state to be given extra statutory powers to decide when local authority newspapers are published.
“We do not believe that this element of guidance reflects the needs of many communities, nor the practicalities of providing prompt, accurate advice and information to them.
“In areas where there are no, or limited local newspapers, then sharing planning details, service changes and details of consultations on a quarterly basis is insufficient.
“Councils which attempt to use these publications as political platforms already face sanctions and all members of our union follow a code of conduct which says: ‘Members working in local and national government shall maintain professional political neutrality at work.'”
The government’s measures, outlined in the Local Audit and Accountability Bill, would ban local authorities from publishing more than four newsletters a year.
At the moment, this is covered by a voluntary code, but according to a written parliamentary answer last month, one in ten councils are simply ignoring it.
The Newspaper Society said: “We welcome the fact that the Government remains committed to strengthening enforcement of the Publicity Code to crack down on aggressive council papers.
“We have been concerned that many of the most aggressively competitive council newspapers have been allowed to continue unchecked since the Publicity Code was introduced two years ago and hope that the legislation designed to crack down on them is implemented without delay.
“Council newspapers and their websites compete with independent local newspapers for private and public sector advertising, the lifeblood of independent local newspapers in their areas. By doing this, local authorities are siphoning off the primary source of revenue which enables independent local journalism to hold authorities to account on behalf of local people.
“It is vital that this unfair competition, which causes real damage to local newspapers, be stopped as a matter of urgency.”
However the NUJ is also warning peers against supporting a House of Lords amendment to scrap the requirement for councils to place public notices in local newspapers.
It said: “The current obligation on public bodies to advertise traffic orders in newspapers recognises the public good that the press performs in providing public information.
“We have no doubt this still holds true, despite the decline in newspaper circulations of recent years. Local newspapers have very strong brands and have a high level of trust within their community.
“At a time of severe public spending cuts, it is easy to see the temptation for public bodies to want to deny newspapers this important revenue-raiser. But it would disingenuous for local councils to suggest that they can disseminate this essential information as effectively.”
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Thanks, NUJ. Nice to know that the journalists’ union is supporting local newspapers in this way.
Why not go the whole hog and be consistent with the messaage you’re sending out, and tell councils they don’t need to put those public notices in their local newspapers, and can instead put them in their own town-hall ‘newspaper’ instead.
Then you can play an even bigger role in killing off the local newspaper.
Every time I am rethinking my decision not to renew my NUJ subscription, another story like this emerges that reinforces my belief that I was right, after all, to leave the union that is supposed to be supporting me.
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The NUJ is increasingly becoming the voice of nobody. First kissing up to Leveson, now this. Who is thinking up these ludicrous policy decisions?!
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What the hell is the NUJ playing at. Pickles has already said that statutory notices in local papers will be gone in two years, no doubt they will go into council publications.
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The NUJ talking nonsense again. What a surprise.
A key thing here is the Audit Commission report.
http://htfpnew.adaptive.co.uk/2010/news/nearly-half-of-council-papers-carry-ads-says-report/
Look at the last two pars of this story. The Audit Commission was initially asked to look at the “impact of council newspapers on the local media.”
But it said it wasn’t within its remit.
So for the NUJ to claim the report ““debunked” the idea that council newspapers represented unfair competition for the local press” is rather disingenuous.
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Crazy stance by NUJ at a time when corporation owned regional newspapers are effectively in the last chance saloon.
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The NUJ’s thinking is flawed.
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This is extraordinary.
I would encourage union members who are appalled at this myopic view to contact their NUJ organiser and protest in the strongest terms.
If this does not work then they should dcancel their membership.
I certainly would, if I had not cancelled it years ago over the union’s complete lack of ability to play a meaningful role in supporting its members’ interests.
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Bizarre stuff from the NUJ, and so out of step with how the vast number of proper local newspaper journalists see the situation, you have to wonder who exactly the NUJ is representing these days.
A key point here is the Audit Commission report.
See http://htfpnew.adaptive.co.uk/2010/news/nearly-half-of-council-papers-carry-ads-says-report/
The last two lines of that story point out that the Audit Commission was aked to “look into the impact of council newspapers on the local media”, but it refused saying it was beyond its remit.
So for the NUJ to suggest the report “had “debunked” the idea that council newspapers represented unfair competition for the local press” is disingenuous to say the least.
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If commercial newspapers were properly staffed and managed, so that local councils were properly reported, councils wouldn’t need to publish these things. It’s not the councils’ fault, it’s the greedy newspaper owners who chose to withdraw from that part of the market, and the fault of news editors who decided council coverage was boring. Readers want the info.
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Could anyone here please offer me one bit of proof that the decline in local newspaper profitability has anything at all to do with council publications? Are things going swimmingly for the local press in areas where the local council doesn’t publish a newsletter? No, didn’t think so. Which means Pickles and his chums at the Newspaper Society are having great fun setting journalists against each other for their own political ends. Don’t be fooled.
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If it is cheaper for local councils to publish their own newsletters and put in the statutory notices, then fine, local papers will just have to be more competitive and stop ripping the councils off. I think most people know the difference between a council propaganda sheet and a decent local paper and will make their choice. If people choose not to buy a local paper then it’s up to us to come up with a product they will want to buy. Not sure why Pickles or the NUJ have to get involved at all.
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Aren’t these council journos in Unite? Odd if they ain’t. And do local authorities recognise the NUJ for negotiation purposes?
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Well said Fiona.
Cynic – the union represents members both in regional newspapers AND in town hall press offices/writing these publications. So they are supporting members’ interests.
This position has come after a lengthy internal debate about what stance the union should play.
I hasten to add although a union member I hold no national positions.
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The NUJ has absolutely lost the bloody plot. First support for Leveson, now this! What on earth are they playing at? I cannot imagine why they have decided to support these propaganda-filled council ad-mags rather than real newspapers, from which they must surely get the majority of their membership.
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Journalists do not work for councils. Spin doctors or press officers are their proper titles.
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Bizarre stuff from the NUJ, and so out of step with how the vast number of proper local newspaper journalists see the situation, you have to wonder who exactly the NUJ is representing these days.
A key point here is the Audit Commission report.
See http://htfpnew.adaptive.co.uk/2010/news/nearly-half-of-council-papers-carry-ads-says-report/
The last two lines of that story point out that the Audit Commission was aked to “look into the impact of council newspapers on the local media”, but it refused saying it was beyond its remit.
So for the NUJ to suggest the report “had “debunked” the idea that council newspapers represented unfair competition for the local press” is not exactly accurate.
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I’m a proud member of the NUJ – and they have been very helpful to me over the years – but I do wish the union would bar press officers and their ilk from joining. We need to set ourselves against Town Halls, not stand in support of them.
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“Pickles and his chums at the Newspaper Society are having great fun setting journalists against each other for their own political ends”
Any journalist worth his or her salt already views local authority press officers as the enemy. It is utterly bizarre to suggest these people are in any way journalists.
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The argument is not, I believe, about competition for advertising.
It’s about the fact that these council-run newspapers/newsletters etc are not real journalism.
They may be run and written by as many journalists as you can tempt away from newspapers with an inflated public sector wage and pension, but it is NOT journalism.
Journalism is about disseminating information, yes; but its primary function is to hold authorities to account, to represent the community which they serve by exposing the activities of those in charge by cutting through the jargon and technical speak to reveal how decisions will actually affect Joe Public.
Council ‘newspapers’ will not perform this duty. Of course they won’t. They are there to sell the unassuming public the best possible spin on a story. Even if there is no local newspaper serving an area, to have a council-run newspaper “informing” residents in this way is dangerous.
The fact that the NUJ is standing up for this is, quite frankly, a perfect illustration of how obsolete they truly have become.
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The argument is not, I believe, about whether council-run newspapers are depriving commercial newspapers of advertising.
The issue for me is the fact that these publications do NOT represent real journalism.
You can staff them with as many journalists as you can tempt away from real newspapers with an inflated public sector wages and pension scheme, but that doesn’t make it journalism.
Journalism is about disseminating information, yes; but its primary function is to hold authorities to account, to represent the community which it serves by exposing the actions of those in charge and the effects they will actually have on Joe Public.
Council newspapers, by their very definition, do not perform this function. They sell the public a diluted, glossy version of events in an attempt to put positive spin on even the most negative stories. We have all had press releases from council PRs selling us positive news on “efficiency savings” and “streamlining” – only revealing the number of job losses in a footnote or after a phone call from a journalist.
Local newspapers may be struggling at the moment, but they DO still perform this crucial function impressively well. Just look at the astonishing number of successful local campaigns going on all the time, the exclusives they produce and the scandals they expose.
Even if there is only a small – or perhaps even no – newspaper presence in a particular area, to have these council newspapers as the means of giving people information is dangerous.
The fact that the NUJ has adopted this laughable stance, ignoring this disturbing trend of pseudo-journalism, just goes to show how obsolete it has become.
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Danielle makes an eloquent and, to me, unassailable point. Which makes it all the more alarming, shifting the focus slightly, that Local World (and, I imagine, other proprietors similarly focused more on profit than product) are now airily talking about meeting back-of-a-fag-packet targets for the amount of dross they can cram into their websites by accepting ‘feeds’ from, inter alia, council press offices, eroding even further the line between news and propaganda. How long before some bean-counter decides there’s no point paying reporters to extract the real news from the town hall’s one-sided guff and that we should just run the press release with a headline? Call me old-fashioned, but PR is the enemy. Fight or die.
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