AddThis SmartLayers

Culture Secretary hints at new funding deal for local press

Jeremy WrightCulture Secretary Jeremy Wright has delivered a strong hint that an ongoing review of UK journalism will lead to a new funding deal for local newspapers.

Dame Frances Cairncross is currently looking at how to sustain the production and distribution of high-quality journalism in the digital era.

A call for evidence to the review earlier this year led to more than 700 responses, the majority of which are thought to have been from the local newspaper industry.

Mr Wright told today’s Society of Editors conference that he had asked Dame Frances to focus as a priority on the issue of how to reward news providers for content shared on social media.

“The value of quality content is not sufficiently rewarded,” Mr Wright told the conference in Manchester.

“Many [social media] platforms are powered by the sharing of news…it is vital that the producers of this news are rewarded.”

Asked by HTFP whether Dame Frances had been asked specifically to look at the funding of local journalism, he responded: “I would expect that as part of the review she will have something to say about local journalism,

“I also suspect that a large proportion of the 700 responses we have received were about that.”

Mr Wright also suggested that the government had a role to play in convincing the public of the importance of high-quality local journalism.

“What the public ought to want is for local newspapers to hold their local councils to account, good quality commentary on what’s going on in their area – but at the moment they are not paying for it.

“We need to persuade the public of the value of this kind of journalism, to help the public to rediscover the difference between the things you see online that just aren’t true and good quality journalism.”

One comment

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • November 6, 2018 at 1:48 pm
    Permalink

    The government will support the local media because MPs love getting the free photo op and having a column waffling on about what they have been up to in Parliament. What would be better is if papers actually critiqued their area’s MP in the way they do for councils. Holding power to account doesn’t stop at local government and the town’s police inspector.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(2)