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Peter Fortune (Bromley and Biggin Hill) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the future of local media.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, I think for the first time, Dr Allin-Khan. I will start by giving hon. Members some reassurance: I intend to give way every time someone asks, because I fully expect this to be one of the most intervened on speeches that I have ever given.
Tom Hayes
I look forward to collecting the prize. Does the hon. Member agree that local media is critical? In Bournemouth we have the Daily Echo, which dates back to 1900. With his grace, I give a shout-out to Toby Granville, James Johnson, Sarah Cartlidge, Benjamin Paessler, Alexander Smith, Erin Rhodes, Jess Skelton, Simran Mehan, Richard McLaughlin, Amy Woodward, Emma Joseph, Isabella Holliday and Will Frampton. If that were not enough, does the hon. Member agree that it is great that we also have new media starting in Bournemouth? Pier Journal launched in 2022 with Sammy Murphy and Laura Williams at the helm, and Bournemouth One launched last year. We need to see more new media.
Peter Fortune
Well played! That was very good, and of course I agree. I used to work with Toby Granville, so I know him well. I think that sets the tone for a lot of the interventions that will come during this speech.
Where was I? Line two: I fully expect this to be one of the most intervened on speeches that I have ever given. Why? Because all hon. Members present will wish to pop up to record their love for their local newspaper, be it the Watford Observer, The Oxford Times, the Farnham Herald—
Gregory Stafford (Farnham and Bordon) (Con)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for mentioning the Farnham Herald. The Tindle group also includes the Haslemere Herald, the Liphook Herald and the Bordon Herald. Does he agree that local papers keep politicians honest, weigh behind the key issues that matter to our local communities and deliver real journalism, whether that be sport or news. Week after week, quality journalists, who live and breathe their own towns and know their areas, are working for the people in those areas.
Peter Fortune
I of course agree with my hon. Friend. The role that local media plays at the centre of the community is what I will develop during my speech, if I get to the second page. I mentioned the Farnham Herald, which he intervened on, and go on to the Isle of Wight County Press and the Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press—all of us have examples of great local newspapers, which are at the heart of our community. We know that what they report matters, because it reflects our communities. While national and regional news have expanded, and the offering has widened, local, trusted news is still the go-to place for residents across our communities.
Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this vital debate. In my constituency, we are fortunate to have excellent local media, such as the Epping Forest Guardian newspaper and Everything Epping Forest online, which provides invaluable coverage across our district. As he alluded to, many constituents rely on local media for timely and local news. Does he agree that sustaining the local media sector is vital and that the Government should do all they can to protect that community service?
Peter Fortune
My hon. Friend makes an important point, which I will get to as I develop my speech. I also have to declare an interest: I spent the majority of my working life in local news. Even as a child, I delivered copies of the local Guardian around south London. My first “proper” job was at the South London Press. Back in those days, we sold two paid-for editions each week and delivered numerous free titles across south London. Later, I spent nearly 10 years with Newsquest, with its huge footprint across the UK. I still write a monthly column for the Bromley News Shopper, our local oracle. The News Shopper dates back to 1965 and counts Norris and Ross McWhirter as former contributors. Indeed, it was deemed such a bastion of information that a young Rupert Murdoch took temporary ownership of it back in 1969.
Peter Fortune
Tell me about it. It remains the go-to place for my constituents across Bromley and Biggin Hill for the news that counts, and that is local news. It is where we go to find out what is happening, what new shops are opening in the high street, what that planning application is that everybody is talking about, or why the heck they have put in that stupid roundabout near Mike’s house. It is the place we go for the things that matter.
But times have changed. Since 13-year-old Peter spent his afternoon stuffing numerous leaflets into hundreds of papers ready for delivery in the early ’90s, technology, advertising and expectations have changed. The traditional model of delivering local news has evolved, and that has put real pressure on the industry—note that I say “model”, not the need for local news. In fact, I would argue that in an age of fake news—Mrs Fortune told me not to do an impression when I said “fake news”—and increasing pressures on council services, the need for trusted, informed and relevant local media is more important than ever before, but it is increasingly challenging to deliver it in the traditional paper format. A newspaper sliding through the letterbox once a week is simply no longer financially viable, especially with the model that relies on advertising revenue to fund the printing and delivery of the product. That does not remove the need for local news; it just changes the delivery method.
Dr Danny Chambers (Winchester) (LD)
I want to give a big shout-out to the Hampshire Chronicle, which I write a monthly column for; that is one of the most vital ways to communicate with my constituents. I was speaking to the owner of the Meon Valley Times, which is a free service that anyone can access and is not behind a paywall. He told me about the difficulty of big social media companies populating their feeds with content from local journalists, who rarely get any financial benefit from that, despite doing the work. Does the hon. Member agree that these companies should be made to support local journalists and their hard work?
Peter Fortune
I do agree. That has been happening in local media since the invention of Facebook, which I will come to later.
Across the UK, local journalism attracts 42 million readers each week. It is the first port of call, be it print or digital in format, for communities who value a trusted source of information. While some formats may have changed from print to pixel, the trust in local brands has not, but the sector faces challenges, including the rapidly evolving digital environment, engagement with Government and public notice funding, and the conversation around a new relationship with the BBC.
John Cooper (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)
I started and ended my journalism career at the Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press, which has had a name-check, and I am delighted to report that people still queue up on a Thursday morning to buy it. It is thriving, but the BBC is a key issue, because the BBC’s website is killing local papers—it is as simple as that. People can access the local news for free, although obviously we pay the licence fee. Is there an opportunity through the new charter to address the damage the BBC is doing to local papers?
Peter Fortune
I agree with my hon. Friend, and I will touch on the BBC charter later in my comments.
Let us start with the digital environment, which the hon. Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers) referred to. For an industry that relies on advertising revenue, the emergence of platforms such as Facebook fundamentally changed the marketplace. Over time, the industry has learned to adapt and channel-shift to keep pace with the changing news environment, but 20 years on from one epoch-defining technological advancement, we find another.
We marvel as we see artificial intelligence developing and becoming the new intermediary between readers and news. This technology can now scrape the internet for information and pump out unchecked, unverified content, which undermines the faith in professional journalism and the financial sustainability of newsrooms. This undercuts the very institutions that produce the content, results in decreasing web traffic, and drains advertising revenue. The Government must act to ensure a fair licensing market, transparency in AI training data and strong backing for the Competition and Markets Authority to level the playing field between publishers and the tech giants.
I touched on public notices. These statutory notices in local papers are a cornerstone of democratic accountability, ensuring that residents know about changes that affect them, yet the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill risks removing this requirement and irreparably damaging the public’s right to know. The Government should commit unequivocally to keeping public notices in local papers, especially at a time of major reform in local government.
Coming to the role of the BBC, the corporation has made valuable contributions through initiatives such as the local democracy reporting service, but we need to better understand how the relationship between local news and our national broadcaster can work more effectively to ensure that commercial operators are not inadvertently impacted due to BBC overreach.
Mr Gregory Campbell
On the issue of local and national BBC, does the hon. Member agree with me about one tremendously heartwarming story this week? I am not a rugby league fan but Kevin Sinfield does fantastic work, going beyond any category of endeavour to draw attention to the vile, awful condition of motor neurone disease. The promotion of that on local and national media helps to drive forward the campaign.
Peter Fortune
I entirely agree on that extraordinary story. I think Kevin Sinfield has run further than I have ever driven. The way he has used national, regional and local media to highlight the issue shows the strength and power of media, when harnessed and targeted properly, to have a positive impact.
When touching on the BBC, I want to talk about the royal charter, which is now being reviewed. This is the moment to reset the relationship with local media, focusing on collaboration, not competition, and ensuring that commercial newsrooms can thrive. Finally, I come to Government advertising: 80% of UK adults trust the information they see in local media, yet Government campaigns remain heavily skewed towards social platforms, missing millions who rely on print and digital news. Shifting more advertising spend to local publishers would not only improve reach and engagement but strengthen the financial sustainability of the sector.
I will draw my remarks to a close, because I wish to give hon. Members as much time as possible to share stories of their local news providers, although many have already done so. I am sure everybody recognises the value of their local title as much as I do the Bromley News Shopper. Although, as politicians, we may not always appreciate being the focus of news, I am sure we all recognise the huge importance of a trusted media source that is from and for the community.
With its sharp focus on local issues, scrutiny of key decisions and responsibility for training the next generation of journalists, local journalism is a public good. It informs, scrutinises and binds communities together, but it cannot survive on good will alone. The Government have the tools to act on artificial intelligence, public notices, the BBC and advertising. If we value trusted local journalism, now is the time to secure its future. Finally, by my reckoning, I have said the word “local” 28 times in this speech, because that is the point.
Several hon. Members rose—
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (in the Chair)
Many hon. Members wish to speak. I suggest a ballpark time of approximately four minutes. I call John McDonnell.
John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab)
I do not do that baloney about what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, but congratulations on your elevation to the chair, Dr Khan.
John McDonnell
I will be brief. I declare an interest as the secretary of the National Union of Journalists parliamentary group and my hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) is the chair. This will be like a Metropolitan police interview between us, and I am not sure which element I am doing.
These debates have gone on for at least the 20 years that I have attended. What usually happens is that there is a large attendance, and hon. Members get up and list the names of local journalists to ingratiate themselves as much as possible. From the NUJ’s point of view, however, that never works.
I will briefly run through the stats because what we are facing at the moment is pretty stark: 300 local papers have gone out of publication since 2005, which is when we had one of our earliest debates. An estimated 5.4 million people now live in deserts where there is no local paper. In my local area, like that of the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune), we had five but we are now down to one that is not really local. I take pleasure in the local journalism students at Brunel University doing their best to revive a paper, but it is a real struggle. We are almost in a monopoly situation now. Nationally, Newsquest, NationalWorld and Reach cover 51% of local papers. The situation is even worse for DAB radio, which is two thirds controlled by Bauer and Global; they have 60% of analogue radio as well.
The hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill mentioned the issue with AI. The problem now is that the use of AI is very clever, because it looks as though news is almost localised when it is not—it is just a different use of language. It is a betrayal of local people that AI has been distorted in this way. We have stood back and watched this happen while the tech companies have exploited the whole industry and made fortunes. One calculation in our briefing was that the US tech firms have made about £15 billion of profits, a lot of it from us in this country.
My hon. Friend the Member for Salford and I will both dwell on something fairly obvious to us: regulation definitely needs to be looked at again. The NUJ has always suggested that there should be a 25% limit or cap on how much is owned by any particular corporation. We also want to look at new models of ownership. We have had this debate before and stimulated some development, but it was not consistently resourced. One argument we have put to the Government is that we need a journalism foundation that looks at new ideas to bring together people from all sides of the industry. We are also calling on the Government to look at a tax on techs that can be reinvested in local journalism. We suggest 6%, but even limited taxation on the techs would mean we could provide a lot more support at local level.
I say to my right hon. Friend the Minister that it was a bit of a knock-back recently that the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill will not require local authorities to advertise in their local press. That is a valuable source of money. I am talking about information on alcohol licences and other local notices. We think that is a real step backwards and might, in itself, be make or break for some local newspapers. We would also like newspapers to be defined in the Bill as community assets, so that they have the same protection as other local community assets when they come up for sale.
The BBC charter renewal has been mentioned, and we think there is a real opportunity there. I should also mention the local reporter scheme via the BBC, which we negotiated under a Conservative Government. It was an advance, but it is now being exploited by some local papers that are exploiting the individual journalist to do other work, rather than local reporting. We need to review that, but we think the scheme is good in itself.
I have outlined a programme of reforms that we think the Government could readily work on. As we can see today, there is a lot of cross-party agreement on how we can go forward. As I repeat time and again, there is not a person here who does not value their local paper for holding him or her to account.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan—and that is not baloney, because I mean it.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) on leading the debate. Local media is so important, especially for our communities. I have listened closely to what Members have said so far, and others will endorse that because we are all on the same page—literally. I, for one, strongly believe in local media and everything it stands for, so that is why I am here.
From newspapers to local radio, we sometimes underestimate the role that local media plays in society. It is so important for the likes of us as public representatives. It allows us to get in touch with the reader or listener directly. I remember my first story in the local press: it was about potholes at the harbour in Ballywalter. The guy in charge of the council said to me, “You do that. It’s your lead-off story as you start your life as a councillor.” That was in 1985. I can remember many of the things that were done to highlight what I was working on in our local newspapers. It is not a generational issue—for me, it probably is—but many others now go online to TikTok or X to get their news, and perhaps do not purchase the likes of papers any more.
I have a routine: every Monday I make a phone call to the editor of the local paper, Paul Symington, when I am at the airport or on the tube train on the way here, and tell him the things I am going to campaign for that week. He is very kind, he wants stories about the things we do, and we do it with a purpose in mind. I am a great believer that one photograph in the local paper is worth three paragraphs, so I try to feature pictorially in the paper—although I might not look all that well—at least one to three times a week, maybe more, because that is another way to tell a story.
My local newspaper, the Newtownards Chronicle, started way back in 1873—over 145 years ago—and I would love it to remain for many years. It is still going strong—it is probably the strongest newspaper we have. I love reading about the local stories and what is going on around the villages in my constituency. It allows me, perhaps from a distance, to learn what is going on and, more so, what needs to be done.
Each Friday, I read and scour the local papers—the Chronicle, the Mourne Observer and sometimes the County Down Spectator—to get the stories about people who are retiring from schools, hospitals and churches, about those who are being installed or have done charity fundraising, and about the schools that have achieved something. After that, some 20 to 30 letters go out to individuals to congratulate them. We should use our local papers for that purpose—that is the right thing to do.
I have talked about the Newtownards Chronicle, but I was saddened to hear that the Down Recorder closed its doors very recently. That was another long-standing paper in the area. The owner Marcus Crichton, who is a great man, said it is a difficult time for the industry, and he is right. It is so different from how it was 20 to 30 years ago. My girls in the office are all tech-friendly—unlike myself, unfortunately—and they sometimes show me news headlines on their phone. I say to myself, “My goodness! How did they get that headline so quick?” In modern society, that is now the way our staff and others do that for us.
As I have stated before, my constituency as a whole is very rural, and many down my neck of the woods do not have access to the same broadband as some urban areas, so access to online news is not great. My constituents rely on the local post office or corner shop to get their news by buying their local Newtownards Chronicle, or they keep the one radio in their house on all day to get the updates. That is the essence of local news and media, and I will forever fight to protect that.
As we have heard today, and will hear from others, there is a dangerous shift in how media is being portrayed. I want to be a voice for the home-grown methods of giving the people their news, and for not always relying on online websites or social media apps, which are inaccessible for many. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response and the contributions of other Members.
Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Allin-Khan.
The future of local news in the UK stands at a critical crossroads. I recently heard from the editors of two Bedford publications: the Bedford Independent, an online locally owned newsroom, and the Times & Citizen, with its digital platform Bedford Today, owned by National World. Both are concerned about proposals in the national licensing policy framework, which they fear will limit their ability to inform the public about decisions that affect their lives.
One proposal would remove the requirement to advertise new or varied premises licences in local newspapers. Public notices are often the only way that residents learn about licensing changes, redevelopment plans or proposals that could alter their communities. I recognise the Government’s rationale for reviewing an outdated and sometimes cumbersome system. Modernisation, digital accessibility and simplification are worthy aims, and innovations such as the Public Notice Portal show how publishers can use digital tools to strengthen engagement. But reform must not come at the expense of local journalism.
Local newsrooms already operate in a tight fiscal environment. Public notices provide modest but vital revenue and the content for public-interest reporting. Removing them without a viable alternative risks undermining local democracy. That is especially acute for independent publishers like the Bedford Independent. With one full-time journalist and two part-time co-founders, as well as volunteers, it provides daily, regulated reporting that fills the gaps left by large corporations. Yet it remains excluded from public notices, overlooked for Government advertising and disadvantaged by algorithms that favour national outlets.
Nearly half of the UK’s districts now have two or fewer local news outlets. As the Department for Culture, Media and Sport develops its local media strategy, I urge the Government to safeguard the financial and civic functions of local journalism. Levelling the playing field is essential to sustaining informed communities and a healthy local democracy.
Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for securing this debate, and for his brilliant speech. I draw the House’s attention to my role as chair of the NUJ parliamentary group.
Since 2005, nearly 300 local papers have closed their doors. Millions now live in communities with only one local title, and millions more live in what we can only call news deserts, where meaningful local reporting just does not exist. We all know what that means: when there is no one in the room holding power to account, decisions are taken in the dark. When there is no local reporter at council meetings, in our courts or on our high streets, communities lose their voice. People lose the very information they need to understand what is happening in their constituencies, and what is happening in their lives.
The broken business models that we see today are a direct result of the local media market being dominated by a handful of corporations whose priorities have been consolidation, cost-cutting and the extraction of profit from once-thriving community institutions. Three companies now control over half the UK’s local papers and websites, and two companies dominate local radio. The same patterns are being replicated in the national media, with potential takeovers threatening to concentrate nearly half the newspaper market into the hands of a single individual. That is why new market rules must be introduced—not to punish success, but to safeguard the public interest. No private company should control more than 25% of the media market. Those holding more than 15% should be required to divest or establish publicly accountable structures.
I must stress that this crisis is not simply about ownership; it is about the hollowing out of newsrooms across the country. My right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) mentioned the redundancies at Reach, with over 300 editorial jobs gone in September alone. Titles that once had rich, thriving newsrooms are being left with one dedicated reporter, or sometimes none. Communities are being stripped of their chroniclers. Journalists are being stripped of their livelihoods. While the cuts happen, companies increasingly turn to AI to churn out homogenised, centralised copy. It is content that imitates local voices rather than reflects them, and that is just not journalism; it is misrepresentation, and the public know it. The overwhelming majority of people want transparency in AI-generated news, and they do not believe that the current safeguards are enough.
At the same time, tech giants continue to siphon off the advertising revenue that once sustained local titles, while refusing to contribute meaningfully to the journalism they profit from. They have taken billions, paid a fraction back in tax, and flooded our information environment with disinformation, extremism and chaos. This has gone on long enough. It is time for a reset. I urge the Minister to do what was suggested in the NUJ’s news recovery plan, which my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington did a fantastic job of outlining.
The key points from the plan are: reform media ownership rules with a strengthened public interest test; establish a journalism foundation to support new media and invest in public interest journalism; introduce a 6% windfall tax on tech giants; retain public notice requirements, thereby protecting a vital revenue stream and a vital democratic function; designate local papers as assets of community value; reform the local democracy reporting scheme, to ensure that public money supports genuine local journalism; and finally, use the BBC charter renewal to reverse the damaging local radio cuts and guarantee sustainable funding for trusted independent local news.
Brian Mathew (Melksham and Devizes) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for securing this timely debate, and everyone who has spoken so far. This really is an important issue. In Melksham and Devizes, we are lucky to have a local print newspaper in the Melksham News, which is both well regarded and widely read. It is staffed by fantastic journalists who work hard to bring local people the news that matters most to them. Importantly, those journalists are rooted in the local community, something that is essential to good local journalism.
Speaking to the Melksham News, I have been made aware that many local authorities exclusively publish their statutory advice for things such as road closures and consultations with larger corporate news outlets. I agree with the paper that it would surely be fairer, and indeed provide wider and more effective reach, if some of that ad spend was shared out among local, independent news outlets. Those notices should be an important source of income for small, independent publishers and it would be one small way in which we elected officials can continue to help our free and fair press.
Of course, it must be acknowledged that the way in which people consume their news is changing, and has been for many decades now—from broadsheets to radio to television and social media. However, we must do everything we can to preserve and help independent local news organisations, which are keeping the flame of honest journalism alive. It was not lost on me that local papers were essential in pushing back on the misinformation spreading online last summer.
If the Government are serious about changing local media and its landscape and helping local journalists, they need to implement the changes recommended in the 2023 “Sustainability of local journalism” report. I now have a regular column in the Melksham News myself, and I have noticed that what I write about is picked up and discussed around the town. It is clear that it is being read and that there is a real desire for local news for local people.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
I am grateful to be called in this debate with you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan, and to the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune).
With the media industry’s moves from print to broadcast to digital, and we with the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence, there are new challenges before us. We must ensure that we have inclusive, authentic media that we can depend on as a reliable source within our democracy—media that can enable close scrutiny and ensure that we hold our country to account, while reaching deep into our communities and creating the connectivity that is so desperately needed in this time.
I am grateful that we have a daily paper, The Press, in print in York. Although its content has thinned over the years, it still provides a substantial record of all that is occurring within our community, with high-quality journalism and interest, as it has done for 143 years. It is so important that local news outlets continue; many journalists learn their skills and cut their teeth there, and they ensure that proper accountability within our communities. As we have heard already in this debate, it is important to ensure that the industry can continue to put planning applications and alcohol licensing information in the papers—not just because of the revenue stream, but because it enables our community to engage. We have seen that in our city, where communities have campaigned as a result of seeing such placements of information.
I also recognise the breadth of media within York, including the newer forms. There is YorkMix, That’s TV, the Yorkshire Post—a campaigning paper—YO1 Radio and Jorvik Radio, a real community-based radio station. Our universities also have papers, and I when I visited Archbishop Holgate’s school last week, I found that my Q&A there was on the record. It is great to see young people engaging in the future of media.
In the light of the fact that we are looking at the new royal charter, I want to turn to BBC Radio York. It has battled so well to bring its expertise and experience to our city, and to shine a light on good-quality journalism and connectivity. If we are to rebuild our national sources of media, we have to start with the local. I therefore urge the Government to look at how we can move more content to local outlets, rather than pursuing the regionalisation that we have seen. That regionalisation breaks connectivity and, in its last iteration, has not been a positive step; we must review that. What we need are more hours of local content—that hyper-local approach makes a difference. If we are to rebuild trust in the BBC, we need to go from the local to the national, not the national to the regional.
The new media in this volatile and heated media space provides unfiltered, biased content, when we need critical analysis of what we are witnessing and a recognition of the profiteering of the tech giants. We need serious regulation, and fast: this new digital world is spinning out of control and the toxicity it generates is making some people incredibly vulnerable. It can be incredibly dangerous, and it is building division and hate. A media that started out to extend democracy is now rapidly shutting it down. We must look at regulation—we could have a commission that pulls the industry together to do that. I recommend the NUJ’s “A Future for News” plan, which sets out a balanced approach to how we move forward.
As we navigate this new world of fact and fake, we must ensure that the route out is through our local media outlets, so we can hold on to authenticity and rebuild trust.
Several hon. Members rose—
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (in the Chair)
A couple of Members have dropped out of the debate, so we have a bit more time. There is no time limit, and anyone who spoke for four minutes or who has not yet spoken may make another intervention.
Jim McMahon (Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton) (Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Allin-Khan; it is great to see you at the top table, keeping these debates in order.
This is an important debate. The connection that Members have shown to their local titles speaks volumes about the significance that they hold in their communities. In my own town, titles such as the Oldham Evening Chronicle, The Oldham Times, Oldham Reporter and Manchester Evening News, as well as the wider ecosystem that includes Oldham Community Radio, ITV Granada and BBC North West, contribute to trusted, deep-rooted reporting that has told the story of Oldham, Chadderton and Royton for well over a century in some cases.
None of those outlets has been able to stand still; each has felt the pressures of a rapidly changing media landscape. In the UK, print news consumption has decreased from 59% of residents in 2013 to just 12% in 2025. I pay tribute to the journalists, editors, photographers, production teams and printers who keep that ecosystem alive; above all, I pay tribute to the local reporters who turn up to court hearings, local council meetings, planning committees and community gatherings. Even in an age of live streams, real understanding still comes from being in the room—hearing the side conversations, tone, and context before and after the formal debate has taken place. I also acknowledge the fantastic work of the more than 165 BBC-funded local democracy reporters whose work is shared across multiple titles. By August 2025 this scheme, funded by the licence fee, had produced more than 500,000 stories.
The transition to digital has been deeply challenging, however. In many towns and cities, the daily printed paper is no longer the anchor that it was. News now appears instantly and freely—and often without any attribution at all—across apps that are designed to capture attention and keep users locked to the platform, rather than directing them back to the journalist who created the work in the first place. Commercial advertising has also migrated to global platforms, but the platforms do not send anyone to cover Oldham council meetings, the magistrates court or community events.
It is a fact that the UK has historically been slow and timid in confronting such challenges. We have a highly regulated broadcast media and press in this country, yet multibillion-dollar platforms operate with standards far below those that we expect of our newspapers and broadcasters. A newspaper is a publisher; it takes full legal responsibility for its content and is subject to clear regulation, complaint mechanisms and restrictions on foreign influence.
Platforms such as X or Facebook are still not held to the same standards. Some are deliberately structured to amplify foreign influence and cause political disruption, without any consequence at all in the law. Yet those platforms rely on journalism created by others to hook in readers and give credibility to their feeds; there, it sits alongside misinformation, conspiracy theories, racism and online hate. A public good is used to normalise extreme content, which grooms and radicalises its audiences through the algorithms.
How do we sustain local media in a world where facts and fiction are constantly blurred? Other countries have recognised the challenge and have acted. In Australia, the news media bargaining code requires platforms such as Facebook and Google to negotiate payments to publishers or face binding arbitration. As a result, nearly 250 million Australian dollars a year now flow back into Australian journalism, supporting around 30 organisations and saving local titles that might otherwise have folded. Across the European Union, article 15 of the copyright directive requires platforms to pay for the use of news content. France, Germany and Spain now have frameworks ensuring that revenue is distributed from the tech giants. Those models are not perfect, but they prove that intervention is possible, workable and effective. They also mean that the UK now is an outlier.
There is no good reason why we cannot take action. The issue could be addressed by the Government introducing a proposal for a British news co-operative, jointly owned by regulated news organisations, empowered to negotiate collective licensing agreements with global platforms, backed by firm legislation and distributing the dividend to support a vibrant local press. If we take action, those titles that we have all talked about today will be something of the future as well as something of our proud past.
Chris Kane (Stirling and Strathallan) (Lab)
Back in 1991, when I was 15 years old, I applied for work experience at Central FM in Stirling. I was meant to be there for a week, and I stayed for 10 years as a broadcaster. Those were golden days of Scottish local radio, shaped by stations such as Central, Radio Forth and Radio Clyde, by familiar voices, great music and genuinely local news. When a winter storm hit, we tuned in to hear which schools would be closed. We rallied behind Cash for Kids and other campaigns that defined that era.
A few years later I began writing for the Stirling Observer. I can still picture the newsroom buzzing with reporters, sub-editors, photographers, and the sense of a team that knew its community inside-out. Then came the world wide web. None of us realised how profoundly it would change everything. When I started at Central FM, I had 17 radio stations to choose from. Today my teenage children can access almost any station on earth—if they choose to listen to radio at all, that is. They consume radio in ways that would have been unimaginable to me as a teenager.
I start with those reflections because they remind us that change in the media landscape is not new. What is new is the speed and scale of the disruption we now face, and the reality that the future of local journalism is genuinely at risk if we choose not to protect it. The consolidation of power among the world’s tech giants and the unprecedented influence they hold over what information we see is deeply troubling. They extract extraordinary profits, while Governments and communities are left to face the democratic and social consequences of their decisions. The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee’s “The future of news” report warned that,
“the period of having informed citizens with a shared understanding of facts is not inevitable and may not endure”,
and it is right.
Recent legislation has helped. The Media Act 2024 gives broadcasters clarity. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 begins to address imbalances between publishers and platforms. The Online Safety Act 2023 is a great first step, but it will need constant attention to ensure it remains up to the task. It is clear that much more will be required.
We might need better legislation to ensure that local journalism has a fighting chance in a world being reshaped by AI, which is already challenging how people access news. Too often AI is scraping journalists’ work without permission, payment or attribution. By serving up instant summaries of that material, it risks becoming the main gateway between readers and local information, using content it did not create and preventing those who did create it from earning a living or building the trusted relationships that sustain local reporting.
One of the biggest missteps we made at the start of the age of social media and smartphones was to blindly follow the tech companies into the brave new digital future they were creating without proper oversight or guardrails. Let us not make the same mistake with AI.
The upcoming BBC charter renewal is an opportunity to look again at how the BBC can support local news, rather than compete with it. The BBC is a vital institution and the local democracy reporting service shows the good it can do, but the move into local online news has created pressure for commercial services that rely on digital audiences to survive. In rural areas like mine, resilience has to be part of the conversation. When the BBC begins to ask whether it is time to switch off digital broadcasting because digital connectivity is almost universal, I would invite them to visit places such as Killin in my constituency, where residents are still waiting for FM radio to reach them—a technology first introduced by the BBC in the 1950s.
Grassroots competition should not be feared. Many talented journalists who have faced redundancy are using platforms such as Substack to build genuinely local alternatives. They may well become the next generation of local media. The Government have a procurement role, too. Our advertising and procurement choices should reward those who are genuinely investing in local reporting—yet that commitment is not always clear. Reach’s recent redundancies, including that of a Stirling Observer reporter with nearly 30 years of experience, and STV’s shocking plans for significant redundancies in the north of Scotland show how fragile the ecosystem has become. Public money should support organisations that maintain real journalistic capacity, whether that is a long-standing local title rooted in its community or an experienced local journalist building a new platform.
A healthy, sustainable and independent local media sector is not a luxury; it is part of the democratic infrastructure of our country. I welcome the Government’s plans for a local media strategy and would be grateful if the Minister could update us on how that work is developing. We should support and invest in local media. If we lose it, we will miss it more than we can ever imagine.
Luke Myer (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this issue, which is fundamental to our democracy. We have some fantastic local news sources in our area, from Talk of the Town in Loftus to Greater Nunthorpe News, to which I am proud to contribute a column.
This debate is all about the people who make our news and the people who rely on it—people like Lynne and Steve Nicholls from Moorsholm, who for 14 years produced the excellent Coastal View & Moor News, a two-person operation delivering a free community newsletter to every home. They celebrated our area’s achievements, campaigned on our local fights and gave communities across East Cleveland a voice of our own. Their retirement last year marked the end of a remarkable chapter, but their work shows what genuinely local journalism can achieve.
This debate is about the future, but this tradition goes right back to our roots as a democratic society. In the 1840s, Teesside Chartists such as 19-year-old George Markham Tweddell produced radical newspapers, including his Stokesley News and Cleveland Reporter, which set out to
“give the ordinary people of Cleveland a newspaper that would reflect their more liberal opinions rather than those of the landowning classes”.
That was not a view shared by the Stockton Conservative association at the time, which grumbled about the
“newspapers and tracts of an objectionable and mischievous tendency”
that were
“exclusively circulated among the lower classes”.
However, that determination—that refusal to be silenced—is where local journalism on Teesside began.
Today, the main local news presence, Teesside Live, serves hundreds of thousands of people across our area. The journalists are dedicated, but it is fair to say they are working under immense strain. The traditional advertising model is collapsing. More than 300 local newspapers closed between 2009 and 2019. Reach, which owns Teesside Live, deserves credit for keeping the paper alive, but in doing so it has had to make cuts. We have heard about some of the decisions that Reach has made across the country recently. Reporters are expected to cover far more ground with far fewer resources, and with the shift to online, the pressure to publish quickly and at volume is intense. We have seen elsewhere in the country how that can lead to lapses in standards, such as the clickbait headlines recently ruled “misleading” by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
Ultimately, this is about our democracy. Just as it was for Tweddell, we now need to prepare for a wholly new age. If local media is diminished, so too is our democracy: communities become less informed, space for debate narrows and trust erodes. More than half of people now get their news from social media, and people are more exposed to misinformation than ever before. Ofcom says that 43% of UK adults recall encountering misinformation—and those are only the people who are equipped to recognise it.
Meanwhile, hostile states exploit this landscape. The Washington Post reported last year that the Russian Foreign Ministry is using disinformation online to weaken western democracy. Such tactics aim to destabilise free societies, and they rely on weakened, hollowed-out information environments to succeed. That is why strong, independent and accountable local journalism matters. It provides trusted information about the places where people actually live. It can counter falsehoods with facts and create a democratic culture that is rooted in community.
The challenge now is to meet audiences where they are without abandoning the standards that make local journalism trustworthy in the first place. First, we must build sustainable funding models for public interest journalism, including community and co-operative ownership, as Members have spoken about. Secondly, we must uphold high standards with stronger regulation. Thirdly, we must help local outlets to innovate safely and embrace digital tools, including AI, without sacrificing trust. Fourthly, we must strengthen media literacy in schools and communities so that people can recognise misinformation when they see it. I welcome the measures in the curriculum review in that regard.
Above all, we must remember that local media is not a luxury, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane) said. When it collapses, civic engagement falls, scrutiny is weakened and communities lose the mirror to themselves. Tweddell wrote that his paper sought to be
“the unflinching advocate of civil and religious liberty.”
Let us ensure that 200 years later our local media can adapt to be the same.
Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for securing this important debate.
According to the Press Gazette, nearly 300 local papers have closed since 2005. We are at a tipping point. The Public Interest News Foundation estimates that 12.5 million people live in areas where there is only one local paper, while 5.4 million people live in news deserts. Local papers provide reliable information at a time when misinformation runs rampant online.
My constituency is lucky to have The Scarborough News and Whitby Gazette, which publish a quality weekly paper with a small and dedicated staff. Regionally, we have the York Press, as was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell), and the campaigning newspaper The Yorkshire Post. On the air, we have This is the Coast, Coast & County, and of course BBC Radio York and BBC Radio Tees.
However, journalists have told me that they are increasingly worried about their own survival—and these journalists are veteran survivors. They have raised concerns about Government proposals to remove the legal requirements to publish alcohol licensing notices and notices on local authority governance changes. The National Union of Journalists has highlighted that local papers remain the main source of news for the digitally excluded. One local editor put it plainly when he said that
“denuding print audiences of the right to know what is happening in their community does not feel like community empowerment to me.”
I agree with him.
Taken together, the changes would deliver a double blow to an already fragile sector. They would deprive titles of reliable revenue, potentially putting papers at risk and impeding the flow of information in our communities. The Secretary of State has committed to publishing a local media strategy to ensure that there is trusted local news across the UK. Ahead of the publication of that strategy, I urge the Minister to consider the impact on these valued and trusted titles of proposed changes to the requirement to report notices. If we value local media and the democracy it sustains, we must legislate to protect it.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (in the Chair)
Thank you, everyone, for keeping to such good time and enabling all colleagues to get in. We now come to the Front Benchers. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.
Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)
I thank the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for securing this important debate. I want to start by paying tribute to the brilliant work being done in my constituency by news outlets such as the Frome Times, The Midsomer Norton, Radstock & District Journal and The Somerset Leveller. Publications like these hold power to account. They inform people on issues that matter locally, and they keep our communities engaged. They are exemplars of what local journalism should be. Many of us in this House would not be as connected to our local community without local papers, often thanks to columns in our local papers that reach people who might not otherwise be following politics or who may not have access to the internet.
However, local news is facing many challenges. As we know, audiences are migrating from print and television to online sources. Advertising revenues have fallen dramatically. Online intermediaries dominate the news value chain, and local publishers face fierce competition for attention from audiences who are increasingly unwilling to pay for news. Perhaps most worryingly of all, a growing number of people are disengaging from news entirely.
News providers have responded with innovation—for example, exploring AI, developing podcasts and implementing paywalls and subscription models—but conditions remain extremely tough, and that has led to a huge variation in local news provision across the UK. Some communities are well served, while others face local news deserts, and this postcode lottery of democratic accountability should concern us all.
Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)
The constant consolidation of local newspapers into large news corporations risks a difficult balance between their need to make money and the audience size. We have lost papers in Lyme Regis, and Sherborne is now covered by Somerset’s Western Gazette as almost an afterthought. Does my hon. Friend agree that, while we understand the need for these companies to make profit, recognising the need of local people is equally important?
Anna Sabine
I do agree, and I will come on to talk about the community impact of how we support local news.
The Frome Times—which, the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill might like to know, does slide through letterboxes for free every fortnight and employs a band of teenagers to do newspaper rounds—is an example of a local newspaper that is serving communities. A recent survey by the town council found that the newspaper is the way that most people in Frome find out what is happening locally. The editor of the Frome Times told me:
“For many years, successive governments have discussed local journalism, including the 2023 report on the Sustainability of Local Journalism. Yet, from the coal face, little has changed. The most meaningful support the industry could receive is a genuine ‘levelling of the playing field’. For too long, dominance has rested with three corporate publishers, whose sales are declining and whose journalism is increasingly distant from local communities. Yet, government bodies (via Omnicom) and local authorities continue to rely on them for advertising spend. Decisions about which parts of the industry to support must ask one simple question: does this actually serve the community it claims to represent?”
I would be grateful if the Minister would commit to reviewing how local councils and Government Departments procure their advertising spend and ensuring that some account is taken of the community impact of that spending.
The DCMS’s BBC mid-term review published in January 2024 made 39 recommendations for the BBC and Ofcom. Ofcom’s subsequent review of local media examined how we maintain widespread availability of local news, communicate its importance, provide easy access to reliable news online and secure genuine audience engagement. Its proposals deserve serious consideration: an innovation fund for local news providers, a public interest news institute to support sustainability and develop a talent pipeline, and news vouchers, allowing citizens to directly support their local outlets.
It is frustrating that the Government have recently taken steps that will make funding for local journalism less sustainable. The Liberal Democrats tabled an amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that would ensure that when public notices are printed, at least one must appear in a local newspaper. Public notices are worth £32 million a year to local journalism. We cannot pull the rug from underneath the sector while business costs are skyrocketing.
Liberal Democrats also support the expansion of the BBC’s local democracy reporting service. That scheme has been a lifeline, placing dedicated reporters in local newsrooms to cover councils, courts and public bodies, although we recognise the challenges that the online content can pose to local news outlets. The scheme thrives, but only if it is provided with sustainable funding. Has the Minister spoken to colleagues in the BBC about future funding for the scheme?
In a time of fake news and misinformation, we increasingly recognise the importance of an independent and free press in our society. It is not a luxury; it is essential to a healthy democracy. My party has consistently defended public service broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4. We need to ensure that we protect their independence and impartiality. That is why we want the BBC to remain universally available, properly resourced and free at the point of use, and why we will continue to champion high-quality independent journalism at both local and national level. If we are serious about protecting our democracy, we must ensure that local news is properly supported, fairly funded and given the tools it needs to continue informing, empowering and connecting the communities it serves.
Joe Robertson (Isle of Wight East) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) on bringing forward this very important debate and on giving a characteristically heartfelt and amusing speech.
It is a particular pleasure for me to be speaking in this debate, coming from the Isle of Wight, which is probably a rare example of a very vibrant local area for independent local press, including the Isle of Wight Observer, Isle of Wight County Press, Island Echo, OnTheWight, Isle of Wight Radio and Vectis Radio. We are very far from being a local news desert, as sadly too many places in this country are. Quality journalism is a cornerstone of any democratic system. In order to exercise the right to vote, the public needs to understand what decisions have been taken in their name and what those seeking power propose to do with that power. It is the media that helps people hold decision makers to account. It was Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who once said, “All politics is local.” It must therefore follow that local media plays a central role in the functioning of our democracy. Indeed, the Opposition say that it does. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill put it, “It is the place you go for the things that matter.”
The UK news media sector serves audiences on more platforms than ever, with 96% of UK adults saying they consume news in some form. However, hundreds of local newspaper titles have closed in the past two decades, a trend accelerated by the covid pandemic, and those that have survived now often operate with reduced resources and fewer journalists. Local journalism is under unprecedented pressure from corporate consolidation—as we have heard—big-tech dominance and declining revenue models. Audiences have migrated from print and broadcast to online platforms, advertising revenues have fallen, and global tech intermediaries such as Google and Meta now capture the vast majority of digital advertising income.
At the same time, competition for audience attention has intensified, driven by clickbait metrics, and a growing proportion of people are disengaging from news. However, the migration to online should not be seen entirely as incompatible with vibrant local media. Indeed, the Island Echo on the Isle of Wight was established in 2012 and is entirely online. It is a successful and highly relied upon source of local news for residents on the Isle of Wight, making full use of digital opportunities, including updates via phone and tying in with some of those big social media giants such as Facebook.
Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)
The shadow Minister makes a very valid point about businesses diversifying and utilising the new online space. I have V2 Radio in my patch, which is a relatively new radio station, but in order to attract people to its radio station, it also puts its news on social media and has a really active website. It also plays a huge role with the voluntary sector in large campaigns that spread across the constituency. It does a Christmas appeal every year and a “Beds for Kids” campaign earlier this year, getting beds for young people who do not have them. Does the shadow Minister agree that the companies that are diversifying and making sure that their news gets to everybody who wants it are more likely to succeed in this complicated framework that we now live in?
Joe Robertson
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. Some of those local independent media are some of the best innovators. OnTheWight is an independent news outlet run by Simon and Sally Perry in my constituency. It started as a town-based Ventnor blog, and by using online opportunities, is now a trusted source for Isle of Wight news.
The growing consolidation of local media ownership and the dominance of major companies such as Newsquest, Reach and even the BBC—whose role I will touch on later—is reshaping the local media landscape and presenting challenges. It leads to reduced local editorial staff, more standardised content produced from remote hubs and, in some cases, the disappearance of physical distribution. However, the intervention of large companies is not always problematic for local news. The Isle of Wight County Press is owned by one of those big corporates, but it is still dominated by local news that is produced by local journalists, with a local editor. Indeed, it is the biggest selling weekly local newspaper in the UK.
In my constituency, there is also a newsprint-based outlet called the Isle of Wight Observer, which was launched in 2018. Its success is largely based on the weekly hardcopy paper that people pick up from the local newsagent on a Friday, showing that such outlets are thriving in many parts of the UK. It has done well by reporting on local issues and holding those in authority to account. There is nothing quite so concerning as when I get a call from the editor of the Isle of Wight Observer; I can assure Members that it causes much more anxiety, when I know that my local newspaper editors have spotted something and need clarification, than a phone call from an editor of a national media outlet, such as The Sun or The Mirror. I am sure we are all better Members for the role of local media such as the Isle of Wight Observer.
Without the journalists, photographers, editors and designers who dedicate their careers to serving the communities that they know and love, who will be the first to raise concerns when something goes wrong? It is worth remarking on the fact that some of the national household names—the journalists we know today who report on current affairs, politics or sport—started their careers in local media, in local titles. Local media is a breeding ground for many of those big, successful journalists, and it is one that national outlets rely on.
Local authority advertising has already been referred to by Members, including public notices and planning applications. Historically, it has provided an essential revenue stream that supports true local journalism. As councils move more notices online—indeed, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill aims to remove the requirement to publish public notices in local newspapers—it presents a challenge in not only lost revenue but the transparency of councils’ decision making, which are of course held to account by local people understanding what is going on. Statutory notices play an important role not only online but in print, because many people, especially older people, still consume much of their local news in a hardcopy print format.
The role of the BBC has also been discussed. It plays a vital role in our public service media environment, and it is also a competitor at local level. The charter review presents an opportunity for the Government to look at that relationship again. The local democracy reporting service has been successful in using the licence fee to support local news output, although the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) rightly commented on some of the challenges with, and caused by, that service. It has reached the major milestone of locally producing over 500,000 pieces of independent journalism, covering some of the information that would not ordinarily be reported on, and which may not, in basic terms, have commercial value, but again casts a light on local decision making, particularly that of local councils. The service was launched almost eight years ago.
In conclusion, politics is the better for local media. It is where decision makers are held to account, and it is the medium through which people can better understand the world around them. Like anything, local media needs to adapt, but it also needs the support to do so in a rapidly changing world.
The Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Arts (Ian Murray)
It is brilliant to see you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan, and it is great to have this wonderful debate with you presiding over us. I thank the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for securing an important debate. We can see from the contributions that it has been an important one, which everyone is interested in. I am delighted that he graduated from stuffing leaflets into newspapers at 13 to stuffing Tory leaflets through letterboxes at 45; he has certainly gone a long way. I, too, had a newspaper run when I was younger, a morning run, which I hated—it was underpaid, too long and too early in the morning—although apart from that, I loved everything about it.
Local media provides a vital and unique service to our communities in its provision of trustworthy—which I emphasise—public interest journalism. Local journalism fosters a range of social benefits, much wider than that itself, empowering local communities and reflecting the issues that matter to us. The hon. Gentleman was absolutely right when he said at the start of his contribution that many people would want to pop up to talk about their local titles. I agree that that might not make a blind bit of difference to the way in which we are treated as a local MP in our local newspapers, but it was nice to hear.
Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds) (Con)
Does the Minister agree that excellent local titles such as the Bridlington Echo, the Driffield & Wolds Weekly and The Holderness & Hornsey Gazette need support? We need to ensure that the income stream from local authority statutory notices continues, so that such thriving local titles continue into the future.
Ian Murray
One hundred per cent, and the hon. Gentleman has just secured a column.
We heard from many Members, including the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Isle of Wight East (Joe Robertson), about the Isle of Wight County Press, the Island Echo, the Isle of Wight Observer and OnTheWight. He hates getting calls from the editors of those newspapers to clarify things, but I am sure his relationship for leaking stuff back to them is rather strong.
We also heard about the Hampshire Chronicle, the Bromley News Shopper, the Biggin Hill News Shopper, the Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press, the Meon Valley Times, the Bournemouth Echo, Bournemouth One, the Greater Nunthorpe News, The Oxford Times, the Epping Forest Guardian, Everything Epping Forest online and The Comet. We heard about The Independent Melksham News, Talk of The Town, Coastal View & Moor News, The Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Radio, the York Press, the Bedford Independent, the Bedford Today, Coast & County, BBC Yorkshire and Tees, the Witney Gazette, The Scarborough News, the Farnham Herald.
The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) mentioned the editor of his local newspaper, Paul Symington, but did not tell us the name of the newspaper, but I believe it is the Newtownards Chronicle—they might pronounce “Newtownards” differently in the east of Scotland. My hon. Friend the Member for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane) talked about local radio—Radio Forth, Central FM and Radio Clyde, such that I thought he was going to burst into a jingle at one point with his experience—and the Stirling Observer.
We heard about the Somerset Western Gazette, The Somerset Leveller and the Bath Chronicle. My hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton (Jim McMahon) mentioned the Oldham Evening Chronicle, The Oldham Times, the Oldham Reporter and the Manchester Evening News. He even went on to talk about ITV regional news.
I am not going to get involved in the childishness and churlishness of mentioning all our local newspapers, so I will not mention the Edinburgh Evening News, The Edinburgh Reporter or Edinburgh Live. All that shows us, however, the impact that local newspapers have on our life, locally and across the country.
John McDonnell
No, I never mentioned it; don’t worry. Does the Minister agree about the sense of urgency in this debate? I will give an example from my constituency. We had those demonstrations outside the asylum hotels, largely fuelled not by local people, but by organisations, quite ruthless ones, with masked men trying to break into the hotels and all the rest. Also, on social media, we have had allegations made against asylum seekers that are completely untrue, but specifically designed to sow division in our community.
We lack a very locally focused newspaper, so people have no access to finding out what the truth really is. They get beguiled and misled by that social media, which is deliberate, because those social media clicks become clickbait, and those individuals make money from it. That is the significance of local media, in particular local press, at the moment when our society is under such threat from those individuals and far-right organisations.
Ian Murray
I could not agree more with my right hon. Friend. In fact, he pre-empted what I was about to say on the way in which it is more important now than ever for our local news to be part of the ecosystem of how people digest current affairs and what is happening.
We saw the division and tensions that were created in Southport. Thankfully, those were headed off at the pass because of local people turning to local news outlets, such as the Liverpool Echo, the Southport Visiter and others, where they could trust that the news they were picking up—either in a newspaper or online—was truthful, up to date and in the best interests of local people. Those examples, as well as the ones my right hon. Friend gave, show how important it is to have trusted local news to deal with mis and disinformation.
Rachael Maskell
I was certainly referring to such an example in my speech, but I am particularly concerned about the influence that disinformation is having on this place and on the policies of Governments over time, which have been brought out in response to that social, unregulated space. Is that not all the more reason for the urgency behind ensuring that a properly regulated environment is put in place, so that we do not have those influences, and we instead pull on the real stories and evidence out there?
Ian Murray
That is really part of the Government’s response to this challenge, as I will lay out in my contribution. The Government are committed to devolving more power and funding to local leaders and communities to bring decision making closer to the people it affects. That, of course, allows local journalism and local news to exercise that transparency and hold power to account by being in the public interest and having that strong accountability. Those are all essential in the examples that we heard in the previous two interventions.
Local media plays a key role in all this—not only in helping to build a more socially cohesive country and providing trustworthy information at that local level, but in countering the false and divisive narratives that are percolating through all our communities, and in helping to keep communities informed, scrutinising local decision making and fostering civic engagement. These are all things that hon. Members have covered in their contributions.
At the same time, never before has this role been so endangered. We have also heard from many hon. Members about the dangers and the challenges. The way that we consume news has transformed—people say over the past 20 years, but actually it has been transforming daily. The way that people consume the news of tomorrow will be different from the news of yesterday.
Rebecca Long Bailey
I understand the importance of involving those at the coalface in the Government’s deliberations on the upcoming media strategy. Would he agree to meet the National Union of Journalists and consult it on the local media strategy?
Ian Murray
I will come on to that, but yes—I will lay out later what the local media strategy has done so far, how we have been consulting through the roundtables we have undertaken, and where the Secretary of State has been taking a leading role.
As we know, people are increasingly looking to their mobile phones rather than their local newspaper. I do not know when hon. Members last actually bought their local newspaper—picked it up off a shelf and paid for the physical copy. Across news publishing, local TV and radio, these changes have prompted significant financial challenges, as traditional business models for local journalism are under more pressure than ever. Those pressures are more acute for local news publishers, both in print and online, although many local outlets are now moving online.
Around 300 local newspapers, as we have heard already, have closed since 2005—equivalent to as much as a third of the sector—and the number of journalists employed by the three largest news providers, which have 60% of the market, fell from around 9,000 to 3,000 between 2007 and 2022. Over that 15-year period, revenue for those three publishers fell from nearly £2.5 billion to a little more than half a billion. We can see the challenge of revenue for our local newspapers.
The effect has been an overall decline in the provision of high-quality local media across the country. More than 40% of UK citizens who are interested in local news do not consider that their local news needs are being met. As many as 38 local authority districts now have no print, online, TV or radio dedicated specifically to that area, leaving up to 4.7 million citizens in local news deserts. That is why the Government are committed to the local media strategy.
Jess Brown-Fuller
Does the Minister recognise that, while we are talking about the struggles local media outlets are facing—and that huge drop in revenue over 15 years—taking away £32 million by removing the opportunity for them to carry advertisements for licence changes could have a huge impact?
Ian Murray
I will come on to examine that point in more detail, but it is well made and certainly understood by Government. That is why we have committed to the local media strategy—to address all of the issues, but particularly those around sustainability—because our vision is for a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level, reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, and telling their stories at that local level. The Government also want to empower local media to hold local public services to account, to help foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story, and, of course, to counter damaging mis and disinformation.
To achieve that, the Government intend to support local media in three key ways. In the short to medium term, we will help the sector, particularly local news publishers, to innovate and transition to sustainable online-focused business models. Over the longer term, we will help the industry to adapt to changing online audience habits and to foster a collaborative and complementary relationship with those that have most influence over citizens’ news diets, particularly big tech—as we have heard—and the BBC, with the important role that it plays. Finally, we will make it easier for journalists to scrutinise local public services and other institutions, conduct investigative journalism and report without fear or favour. Innovation funding is part of that. We have not ruled out the option of financial support being a key part of the local media strategy, bearing in mind the fiscal constraints in which we currently operate.
Jim McMahon
I get the Government’s intention, which I strongly support, and I credit the Minister for the work that he is doing, but none of us would accept a member of the public going into a newsagents, taking a newspaper off the rack and walking out without paying for it, yet that is exactly what is taking place with these online giants. They are taking the news off the rack without any payment, commercialising it and making billions in the process. That is what we need to consider. I hear the arguments about whether local authorities should continue with statutory notices—I have a different view; I am not sure that we should hold on to something from the past if it is not adding real value that can be demonstrated from the public investment—but we need to move to a modern way of funding a sustainable local press. Surely that requires a bigger intervention from the Government.
Ian Murray
I will come on to that, because the AI copyright issue is a key part of what we are trying to determine. As my hon. Friend will know, under the legislation, the Government are preparing to publish the report and impact assessment required by sections 135 and 136 of the Data Use and Access Act 2025. That must be laid before the House by 12 December. The impact assessment will include an assessment of each of the options put forward in the Government’s consultation on copyright and AI, including the economic impact of each option on copyright owners and AI developers. That will include the publishing and the news sectors.
In the meantime, the Secretaries of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and at DCMS have jointly shared three meetings with representatives of both the AI and the creative sectors. We are convening expert working groups and parliamentary working groups to consider all the options. We are dedicated to protecting our world-class creative industries and to ensuring that they thrive in the age of AI. Our creative industries sector plan is all part of making sure that that sector flourishes. I am interested in what my hon. Friend said about that British news co-operative model, which might be able to be used as a collecting agency for those kind of issues.
That assessment will be reported to the House by Christmas. There will be great interest in that and I hope that my hon. Friend will be able to supply some more information on those particular industries. We are very much dedicated to protecting our world-leading creative industries. I hope that gives him some assurance.
On the local media strategy, in the spring we had a roundtable with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and local news editors. We set up an industry working group to consider the issues in more detail and explore areas for collaboration. I have not dealt with the roundtable yet, being relatively new to this role—I do not know whether the National Union of Journalists is part of it but I will check and inform my hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) whether it is. If not, we will make sure that it has input into that working group. That roundtable has been meeting since June and has been invaluable in shaping our approach. We thank all those journalists who have given their time to help us shape that work.
A whole host of other things are happening. Let me touch on a few that address some of the issues that have been raised. Many hon. Members raised concerns about the recent Government proposal to relax statutory requirements—this goes to some of the interventions—to publish and print applications for alcohol licences in local newspapers. That proposal is being explored as part of a wider set of licensing reforms that aim to create a modern, proportionate and enabling system that supports economic growth, revitalises high streets first, as vibrant communities, and helps local authorities. The call for evidence closed in November. We are carefully considering the responses and will take forward the final decision as part of that local media strategy. Of course, the contributions that hon. Members have made in this debate, and others on this topic, will be taken into account in that process.
Many hon. Members have mentioned the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. Councils are currently required to place a notice in one or more newspapers circulating in their area; that Bill would enable councils to decide how best to publish any relevant information. In practice that provision will apply to very few councils, since over 80% in England already operate a leader and cabinet model and will therefore not be required to make any changes to their governance models. The DCMS and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are considering how that measure interacts with the forthcoming statutory notices review that sits alongside it.
At the same time, the Government recognise that statutory notices of all types are important in helping to inform the public of decisions made by the council that affect the quality of their lives, local services and amenities or their property, and the impact that has on the financing of local media. A separate part of the strategy will look ahead to the long-term future of local media. It is important that we consider the role of the BBC as part of that, as many hon. Members have mentioned. As the charter review approaches, the Green Paper will be published soon. That is an opportunity to consider how the BBC can best support and defend local news through its work.
In that context, as the shadow Minister mentioned, the local democracy reporting service plays a key role in helping communities and local businesses to scrutinise decisions that impact them and in holding public services to account through fact-based local reporting. We will look to extend and improve that service as part of the licence charter period. The BBC underpins a lot of local reporting and the local news ecosystem.
We are taking action through the digital markets regime, which came into force at the beginning of the year and which should help rebalance the relationship between the biggest tech firms and news publishers. The issue of big tech companies not being subject to the rules was raised in the debate. We welcome the progress made by the Competition and Markets Authority, in particular in designating Google’s and Apple’s services as being subject to its rules. Measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 on the treatment of journalists’ content will add a further layer of protection for the industry against the erroneous takedown of content by social media platforms, especially at the height of the news cycles that we have seen, once implemented by Ofcom. The local media strategy will explore whether further action may be needed to support local media in adapting to changing audience habits online, and guaranteeing public access to high-quality local journalism, particularly in the context of AI-generated news summaries and aggregators.
On Government advertising expenditure, we are committed to ensuring we make the best use of local media in Government advertising campaigns. My Department has been working closely with the Cabinet Office on that as part of the local media strategy, because we know local media provides that trustworthy environment for those kinds of governmental issues, and is a vital source of revenue. We are working on taking that forward.
I will refer quickly to a point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) about the Government establishing a journalism foundation to co-ordinate support. The Cairncross review recommended something similar. Our local media strategy will seek to achieve the same ends by co-ordinating support for this vital industry. That possibility is on the cards and I look forward to working with him to see that happen.
The Enterprise Act 2002 (Amendment of Section 58 Considerations) Order 2025, which passed in the summer, extends public interest considerations to further protect plurality in our system; there are public interest considerations about the need for a sufficient plurality of persons with control of media enterprises. The statutory instruments about control by a single publisher, which was also mentioned by many hon. Members, have gone through.
I will finish by talking about the protection of journalists, which is hugely important. They need to be protected from harassment, abuse and threats, whether online or offline, of an illegal nature. As co-chair of the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists, alongside the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), I welcome the delivery of many of the group’s commitments to ensure that journalists can operate free from such threats. The NUJ has been very involved in that hugely important process. That includes the work of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which confirmed in September that each police force across the UK now has an appointed single point of contact for journalists to reassure them that they can operate in the field and online with a direct point of contact to the police should any issues arise.
We are committed to a plural, trustworthy and independent media landscape. Our local media strategy will play a key role in fostering that at a local level. More will be announced on the strategy in the coming months. I look forward to working with right hon. and hon. Members to ensure that the local media strategy delivers for all our local newspapers.
Peter Fortune
I do not have enough time to thank everybody individually, so please take it that all are thanked and loved, especially the people who gathered outside to beep in support of the Westminster Hall debate.
One of my heroes, George Orwell, believed that local journalism should reflect lived experiences, and that it is often overlooked by the national media in what he called a “reporting deficit”. He talked of good journalism being about honesty, clear language and exposing lies, and he used those principles to write “The Road to Wigan Pier”, one of his many great works. Society and civilisation are fragile and, when news can be weaponised, the clarity and trust provided by local media are vital to holding our communities together. I ask the Minister please to remember that and support it.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the future of local media.