The director-general of the BBC has suggested the corporation could pay for stories originating in the regional press.
Writing in The Times, Tony Hall, pictured left, said he wanted to look at how the BBC could help other media outlets across the country.
He has also claimed he wants the corporation to help other organisations find their way into the world’s top 100 websites, a list in which the BBC’s own currently features.
Other figures to have called for such a remuneration arrangement between the BBC and local newspapers include former Newspaper Society president Adrian Jeakings and former Culture Secretary, now Business Secretary, Sajid Javid MP.
Wrote Mr Hall: “Some blame the BBC for the challenges that other media face in adapting to the internet age — but that is a challenge faced by media around the world, including places that do not have a BBC or anything like it.
“But I do want to look at how the BBC can help. We are already working more closely with local newspapers to link to stories and are exploring what more we can do by sharing content or paying them for reporting.
“The BBC’s website is the only British representative in the world’s top 100.
“We want to use it to help others make their transition to the online world, asking how we can support organisations such as museums, galleries, theatres and universities too.”
His piece comes the week after a government green paper published ahead of a public consultation on the BBC’s charter review urged the corporation to give clearer attribution to stories sourced from regional newspapers.
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The BBC to pay local press for stories….ha ha
They pay a pathetic amount to freelances already for local radio use.
Those same freelances help fill weeklies and evenings and it will be their copy the BBC will be using
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Beeb won’t be shelling out much to local rags if my skinny under-manned weekly is anything to go by.
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Oh come on BBC – too little and far too late. The local newspapers, whose stories you leached, are now so sucked dry you won’t need to shell out much licence-payers’ money to them. Anything you pay might bolster the redundancy cheques to the industry’s unsung heroes – the hardworking, talented and passionate regional journalists who are being cast off at an accelerating rate.
And so, fewer stories for the Beeb and, more significantly, for the patches those uncredited hacks covered.
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The point is that for major stories ( ie those deemed most interesting) local rags and regional Beeb have the same sources; cop press releases and crime stories. Just count the number of crime leads on your regional Beeb!
Since a lot of papers no longer have locally based reporters, or even offices, they no longer get off-diary stories (remember them folks?). So where’s the gain for anyone?
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What if the local paper feeds off the BBC? Not much news covered in certain patches then. Unless the BBC is interested in those awful listicles, or ‘Ten pubs that no longer exist’ nostalgia crap.
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Martini
my ed came up with a brilliant idea. More nostalgia. I nearly threw up in desperation.
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Maybe we can sell them the flying pigs story.
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