Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the impact of the closure of regional media companies and titles on (a) local democratic accountability, (b) employment in journalism and the wider creative industries, and (c) the resilience of the UK’s media ecosystem; and what steps her Department is taking to prevent further closures.

Digitalisation has posed challenges to the financial sustainability of local media. At least 293 local newspapers have closed since 2005, equivalent to around a third of the sector. The number of journalists employed by the three largest local news publishers fell from circa 9000 to circa 3000 between 2007 to 2022. Evidence suggests that this is having repercussions for the spread of misinformation, increased community tensions, reduced civic engagement, lower economic growth, and a lack of accountability and scrutiny of local government.

In response to these challenges, the Government has launched the Local Media Action Plan, which sets out our planned approach to tackling these challenges in collaboration with industry and others. The Action Plan aims to empower communities with local journalism that reflects the issues that matter to them, helping to drive community wellbeing, cohesion, and local growth. It includes: investing up to £12m in a new Local News Fund, which will help local media outlets adapt to commercial and technological changes and revive a local news presence in areas where it has retreated; more than doubling community radio funding to £1m a year; ensuring better transparency of local decision-making by reviewing the rules on publishing statutory notices; and creating a new Regional Media Forum in the West of England, to develop a framework for best practice in scrutiny of local decision-making and public services.

In April, we launched a new journalism careers campaign in the North West, Inspiring the Future, to inspire young people to pursue careers in journalism and local media. It also seeks to build news literacy and help young people navigate the online information ecosystem. Inspiring the Future forms part of the wider DCMS-funded Discover Creative Careers programme, which will provide young people across the country with clear, coherent and inclusive pathways into the creative industries. More broadly, the Creative Industries Sector Plan sets out how we are partnering with industry to support skills development and build a resilient, skilled workforce fit for the future. We will soon publish a Jobs Plan which builds on this to outline how Government and business are working together to support the creative workforce over the next three years.