Regional Newspapers

Debate between Andrew Griffiths and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Wednesday 5th December 2012 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Griffiths]

Thank you, Mr Hood, for that advice. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Newspapers are businesses, and are run by business people. They recognise that they must diversify, and they are looking for alternative income and revenue streams. All our newspapers now have internet sites, and are looking at how to spread their contents on as many platforms as possible. I hope that the Local World venture will help in that objective, but the reality is that advertising revenue through the internet is much lower than what can be expected through the printed medium, and that is disappointing for the many newspapers that have invested heavily in their online presence and advertising. They are competing with a whole host of different bodies, and competing with advertising on Google, Yahoo and other providers. It is difficult for them to compete.

The problem is not a UK phenomenon. The Newspaper Association of America says that industry losses account for some £500 million in a half year, which is offset by only a £20 million increase in online revenue. That shows the position that our newspapers are in. They are trying to be good businesses, and looking for new markets, but those new markets have much smaller margins and revenue income. We must look at what we can do.

I touched briefly on democracy. We all recognise how much more difficult it would be to communicate with our constituents without a local newspaper to get our message across. It is a case of, “If it didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.” We must look at the implications for us as politicians and as the Government if we lose this important communication tool. I have a hardy band of deliverers in Burton, but my ability to communicate with my constituents would be vastly reduced if I lost my local newspapers, and I would be remiss if I did not mention the Burton Mail. I am lucky to have such a great newspaper. It is a daily newspaper, and run by a fantastic editor, Mr Kevin Booth. I am also lucky to have three weekly newspapers, the Uttoxeter Post and Times, the Uttoxeter Echo and the Uttoxeter Advertiser. Strangely, they all serve Uttoxeter in my constituency.

Those newspapers, particularly the Burton Mail, serve another purpose. They are local campaigning tools. They are the voice for the local community. They do not just transmit information to my constituents; they take up causes on their behalf. The Burton Mail has run a whole host of campaigns on issues such as knife crime, making the town centre safer, and keeping the Margaret Stanhope mental health centre in my constituency open. A plethora of great campaigns have galvanised the community in the way that a Facebook page simply cannot. If we lose our newspapers’ campaigning ability, the voice of our communities will be diminished, and we should care deeply about that if we care about our constituents.

Our local newspapers are the first point of call for people to find information. Although my local councils—East Staffordshire borough council and Staffordshire county council—have fantastic websites, Twitter feeds and Facebook accounts, to try to communicate with the people who pay council tax, those people do not visit the websites daily to look for information, whereas local newspapers are such a repository of information. I said earlier that if we did not have them, we would have to reinvent them.

The Government must realise the importance of our local newspapers in communicating messages to the country. The Government advertising budget is under pressure. We recognise that we must make serious savings, and the Government are looking at communicating through new media, but many of my constituents are older people. Although we have a large number of silver surfers in Burton, many people still do not use the internet, Twitter, or Facebook, and turn to local newspapers for information. If we lose that, it will be to all our detriment.

The Government need to look at what more we can do. I have come up with the phrase “community capital”, and I think there is some community value in what our local newspapers do. In the same way that we support post offices through Government initiatives for the provision of services, and the voluntary sector through the Big Society Bank and investment in voluntary services, we should look at supporting our local newspapers to ensure that that community capital is not lost.

I point to two things. First, I recognise that the Government have taken some steps on tackling the issue of council newspapers. We have all seen the growth of free local council newspapers that go through doors at quite some expense, and my right hon. Friend and chum the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has done a great deal to try and rein in the worst excesses of those councils. However, we are still seeing some councils, such as Cardiff city council, spend huge amounts of money. A newspaper is produced there 13 times a year at a cost of some £33 million to the taxpayer. Is that a good use of council tax payers’ money, or should we be looking at what we can do to support our local newspapers?

Secondly, I touch on the issue of Department for Transport notices. A consultation ended earlier this year, as the Minister will know, on the DFT and its use of advertising notices in our local newspapers to ensure that local residents understand properly what is going on with the transport network in our constituencies. Were that important income revenue to be lost to local newspapers, I have absolutely no doubt that it would lead to the loss of journalists and tip some of our weaker local newspapers, which might disappear for ever, over the edge.

I am fast coming to the end of the time that I have to speak.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

More!

[Andrew Griffiths]

I thank the Minister for demanding more, but sadly no one behind me is saying the same.

I know that the Minister is a champion for local newspapers. I have seen the number of times that he has appeared, peering out from the pages of the Wantage and Grove Herald, and I know how he supports his local newspapers. However, although he is responsible for this issue in his Department, we need to look at the wider landscape and what the Government can do to support local newspapers, if we are serious about a sustainable future for them. I urge him to look at what he can do to get a council of war together with other Departments. Let us look at what we can do with the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Cabinet Office, in relation to the big society, and at what we are doing with Departments such as the Department for Transport. Let us get all those Departments together and see how we can maximise the benefit of our local newspapers.

I am a Conservative and I hate to use the word “subsidy”—I do not use that word lightly—but there are ways in which the Government can do more to support, rather than subsidise, our local newspapers. We have to look innovatively at how we can channel Government activity and use our local newspapers to their benefit and that of Government.

Trust is hugely important. As we have seen in recent weeks, although Twitter is a fantastic vehicle for getting information out, it is also hugely unreliable. We have seen the implications that that has had for people who have been thrust into the media spotlight through no fault of their own. Local newspapers are trusted in a way that no other form of information is. We as a Government support the BBC, local television and Channel 4 through various mechanisms, and it is important for us to begin to re-examine how we support our local newspapers to ensure that they continue to hold us as politicians to account, continue to be champions for their local communities, and continue to support our local communities in achieving all that they can.

Culture, Media and Sport

Debate between Andrew Griffiths and Lord Vaizey of Didcot

Wednesday 17th November 2010 Ministerial Corrections

[Andrew Griffiths]

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer to Question 15057, if he will direct the accounting officer of his Department to examine the appropriateness of the UK Film Council's contract with Portland.

[Official Report, 4 November 2010, Vol. 517, c. 912W.]

Letter of correction from Mr Ed Vaizey:

An error has been identified in the response given to the hon. Member for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) on 4 November 2010. It has been noted that the reference to APPC has been set out incorrectly.

The original answer was as follows:

[Mr Vaizey]

The Department has been assured by the UK Film Council (UKFC) that its contract with Portland was appropriate and consistent with Cabinet Office rules.

Portland has advised that it did not carry out any public affairs work for the UKFC, but did assist with media support, and for the purpose of transparency, listed the UKFC on its Advocate Policy and Public Affairs Consulting (APPC) client list.

In light of this clarification, there are no plans for the Department’s Accounting Officer to investigate further the appropriateness of the UK Film Council’s contract with Portland.

The correct answer should have been: