BBC can help save local newspapers
Author: The Times |
The BBC should come to the aid of struggling local newspapers rather than compete against them, the Culture Secretary has told The Times.
As more newspapers go to the wall, and thousands of regional media jobs are lost, Andy Burnham is calling for radical measures to save a pillar of local democracy.
Rules restricting mergers of local newspapers could be eased, more government and local authority advertising could be pushed their way, and new models of ownership will be examined.
The Government will also study how the industry can modernise and become part of the digital communications age.
Ministers are looking at council-funded newspapers that are taking business away from the traditional press. Mr Burnham has called a one-day conference of industry representatives at the Commons next month, and is planning to raise the future of the industry at Cabinet level. He told The Times: “Local newspapers have long been part of the fabric of life in our towns and rural areas. But as most MPs can see with their own eyes, they are facing very dire times.
“Some of it is cyclical because of the downturn, but some of it is structural as readers and advertisers have turned to the internet. We cannot allow this vital source of local information to disappear.”
He said: “We have to plot a path for local papers to move into the digital age.”