Local Newspapers
Debate between Linda Riordan and Louise MenschWestminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
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Louise Mensch
Yes, I do indeed. When part of that advertising comes from Government and the local council, it is important to create a level playing field over various forms of media. The BBC is a national treasure, but when it goes to hyper-localism in its websites and reporting, it creates a very difficult behemoth for local commercial papers to compete against. Council free sheets have been the single biggest cannibal of the markets of local papers. Research sent to me by Retail Newsagent Magazine states that more than £5 million will be wiped off local newsagents in the future. It is not merely the 10,000 journalists that local newspapers employ, but the subsidiary trade that they bring to their areas and to newsagents that rely on passing trade and footfall, as people come in to buy their local paper every day.
Mrs Linda Riordan (Halifax) (Lab/Co-op)
I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this important debate. Does she agree that the local economy of towns such as Halifax will suffer another blow when they are already suffering from job losses in the banking sector and the public sector?
Louise Mensch
I do indeed. Now is not the time to wipe out our local press.