Down and out?
Local newspapers are vital in holding politicians to account but, sadly, the landscape today is a scene of upper devastation with most titles either dead or dying. That’s the view of columnist William Hague (pictured) who, in an article in The Times, states that “local newspapers have been virtually destroyed without adequate replacements.”
In his column, printed on 12 March, he wrote: “In our second largest city, the once-great Birmingham Post is now selling 844 copies a week to more than a million inhabitants. That’s not a misprint.
“Might this be the same Birmingham where a long sequence of staggeringly incompetent leadership has bankrupted the city council and now means massive cuts in local services? I’m afraid so.
“News websites about the city are busy but there is no doubt that scrutiny, accountability and public debate of such developments is weaker than it would have been in the past.
“The intrepid local reporter who will go on to a career in the national media is now a rare sight. In most of Britain, local news is hallowed out and on the verge of extinction.”
As an MP who represented his Yorkshire constituency from 1989 to 2015, the now Rt Hon Lord Hague of Richmond added that whereas video rental stores and shops that developed people’s holiday snaps had been replaced by new services that offered superior products, local newspapers were not being replaced by anything remotely equal, let alone superior. “That is a market failure that needs correction,” he stated. Some publications were often just a ghost of their robust former selves; the arrival of social media having brought a sudden death syndrome for local news.
He suggested that Government could fund an Institute for Local Interest News as the centre of excellence recommended by the Cairncross Review in 2019; the expired Future News Pilot Fund could be relaunched and expanded to support new ideas and that the BBC should expand its Local Democracy Reporting Service, focusing on under-served areas rather than compete directly with the few remaining quality local papers.
As if to underline his comments, latest information from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) reveals a further alarming drop in the sales of print editions of Midlands newspapers. For example, the Birmingham Post’s sister publication, the Birmingham Mail, between July-December 2023, averaged a daily sale of 5,074 (down 23 per cent). The Sunday Mercury dropped 26 per cent to 3,622 copies.
In Wolverhampton, the Express & Star dropped 18 per cent to 11,864, while in other major Midland centres such as Worcester, Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford, Derby, Nottingham and Coventry, slumps of between 17 per cent and 28 per cent were recorded.
Regional paid-for weekly titles fell from 8 per cent to 36 per cent, a figure recorded by the Tamworth Herald, which now sells just 1,906 copies a week. Free titles dropped from 2 per cent to 18 per cent.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists says that almost a third of Local Democracy Reporters (LDRs) have left their roles since April 2023. It says low pay is fuelling the high turnover rate among LDRs and is calling for “radical changes” to the funding mechanism for the scheme.
The union, which claims some of the funding from the BBC for the scheme is being retained by publishers rather than being passed on to the reporters themselves, is calling for stipulated minimum pay rates and for all participating publishers to ensure public money is not used to boost their financial bottom line.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that 28 per cent of LDRs left their roles in 2022-23 while 31 per cent have left since April of last year.
Chris Morley, NUJ Northern & Midlands senior organiser, said: “The LDR reporting service is now anchored in the journalism ecosystem of the UK and has been a force for good for quality journalism. It has allowed publishers to continue to provide quality original content to the communities they serve where they might have been tempted to exit that form of reporting.
“However, the service is under pressure from a funding mechanism that has proved too inflexible in the recent years of high inflation. It has left publishers to ‘do the right thing’ to go above and beyond what is contractually required of them with their LDRs’ pay – and some have not done so.
“The BBC needs to review this flaw in the system and publishers certainly need to step in to make sure they are not extracting an undeserved profit from the arrangement by failing to properly reward LDRs with the valuable work they do.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We are really proud of the thousands of stories the Local Democracy Reporting Service has delivered over the last six years and the opportunity it has given hundreds of journalists to tell stories that really matter. The existing funding and salary model expires on June 30, 2025. We will work with partners to ensure the scheme continues to meet all of its core requirements.
“We have clear processes in place to make sure all local democracy reporters are paid within the same pay range. The BBC treats all suppliers equally no matter the size of the publishing company when it comes to what funding is available for the reporters.”
