Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will meet representatives of the (a) Independent Community News Network and (b) Public Interest News Foundation to discuss (i) allocating a proportion of the Government’s Coronavirus advertising spend to independent-sector newspapers and (ii) disbursing that funding and placing those advertisements under a sector-wide agreement with that network and foundation.

The Minister for Media and Data met with the Independent Community News Network and the Public Interest News Foundation on 6 May to discuss Government support for the independent news publishing sector to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 on the sector. This meeting included a discussion about the Government's national campaign to provide information and reassurance to the public about Covid-19 and how the independent sector may be used to reach underserved audiences.

All titles utilised in the campaign have been selected by the Government's media planning and buying agency, OmniGOV. As with any media planning approach, titles are selected on their ability to engage with audiences at a national, regional and local level and to ensure value for money, reach and targeting efficacy. The current partnership brings together over 600 national, regional and local titles across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to reach 49 million people a month. The vast majority of titles are local papers and additional titles have been selected in order to further reach priority audiences including BAME and older men.