Go public
Communities need their local media, but all over Britain local papers are running into the ground. Titles and offices are closing as the newspaper chains slash and burn their way around the country.
It’s a crisis. But for journalists it can also be an opportunity — for new media to provide local news that really meets the interests of the community, rather than the business needs of the national groups.
Public service journalism in broadcasting — applauded by journalists and the union — could become a local media reality.
It does not have to make a huge amount of money and with the internet it does not have to cost much.
The NUJ has started to discuss the possibilities. It’s a discussion the whole union can get involved in.
IN MEDIA and union offices they talk of little else. How on earth do we safeguard the future of local media — newspapers and their websites? How do we rescue them from the triple attack of the fall in sales and ad revenue, the rivalry of the internet, and the asset-stripping of the big newspaper chains that have bled them dry for years?
The NUJ has set up a Local Media Commission to look at the future of the industry, discussing new business models to replace the worn-out, discredited structure of big group ownership that has brought it to the brink of destruction.
The commission, consisting of journalists with national and regional newspaper experience, first met in March to talk about bringing together a coalition of interested parties — including government and public bodies — to fund and run new local media.
“Filling the News Gap” was the slogan agreed for the massive task at hand. News gaps were identified primarily in areas where existing companies have closed their offices, but it was recognised that there will be more to come.
NEW COMMUNITY media could be not-for-profit or accept a small profit, sufficient to run the business. Local media trusts could be set up, representing business, union and community interests, to assist and oversee new ventures.
Journalists don’t like the idea of public funding, because it can carry the risk of outside control, but in the present climate it will be essential. Mechanisms to guarantee editorial independence would have to be built into any system.
There could be small-scale “seed funding”, or matched funding in which the enterprise must find the same amount from other sources, such as local councils, trusts, rich benefactors, family businesses, university media departments, the EU’s community media fund, or even existing media, or the national lottery.
There is a precedent for such local public/private co-operation at Kent TV, where the county council funds a local TV channel, run commercially at arms’ length, with news supplied by local papers.
Regional development agencies could provide funding and assist with business plans. Alternatively, there could be a national Media Enterprise Board — an old-Labour style funding body to distribute public money to new ventures. Beneficiaries would have to sign up to old ITV-style contracts guaranteeing editorial independence, local content, news, — or what is being called “public service journalism”.
There are already dozens of small community papers and hundreds of local websites. Many are run by the present local newspaper groups, but in Barrow, for instance, there are four monthly community papers run by local people with a journalist from the local paper. Printing is by the local paper too: it could be a requirement imposed by media trusts that existing presses provide access to new local media.
The NUJ might even facilitate a pilot project itself, helping members made redundant.
AS WELL AS start-up funding, ways of raising revenue to be able to pay for quality journalism is a major concern. There are technical means such as geo-targeting* to bring in ads for new websites.
Government itself could offer help in many ways: there could be loans at preferential rates, or government guarantees on bank loans; tax breaks; or funding from levies on the industry channelled through national or regional media boards or trusts.
Levies could be raised from internet providers, phone companies or internet news aggregators, who distribute news originated by local and national media without paying for it.
* Geo-targeting is the method of determining the physical location of a website visitor and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location.