View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Publishers
  2. Broadcast Journalism
February 25, 2014updated 26 Feb 2014 3:29pm

NS president Adrian Jeakings to MPs: BBC ‘should pay’ regional press for lifting their stories

By Press Gazette

The BBC should pay regional newspapers for stories it uses on its websites and local radio stations, a committee of MPs has been told.

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's hearing on the future of the corporation was told that local newspapers often found their stories repeated on BBC outlets without attribution.

The president of the Newspaper Society, Adrian Jeakings, told MPs that "unconstrained commercial expenditure by the BBC could if taken to its limit wipe out the local press".

He said: "If we could find a mechanism where by we would be appropriately rewarded for creating content for them and sharing it with them then we'd be very interested. Just stealing it though, we're not keen on".

Asked by committee chairman John Whittingdale if that would be "indirect state funding of local newspapers", he said it would not.

Jeakings said: "The state would not be determining what content was created or indeed controlling what we said.

"They would be paying for what is supposed to be an independent broadcast medium to source content of relevance to its audience. It would be far more attractive to do it that way than any form of state subsidy for what we used to call the regional press."

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Last November, Home Secretary Theresa May warned the BBC's dominant position on the internet was destroying local newspapers.

She told the Society of Editors' annual conference in London that the ''might of the BBC'' could ultimately impact on ''local democracy''.

She said: "If the BBC can, as they do, provide all the locally significant news, what is left to motivate the local reader to buy a paper?"

The committee also heard from senior executives from commercial radio.

Will Harding, from Global Radio which owns Classic FM, said the BBC should be a pioneering organisation and not follow the lead of commercial broadcasters.

He said Radio 3 took presenters from Classic FM and copied its approach, telling MPs: "This is not the BBC leading the way, this is the BBC doing the reverse – aping what the commercial sector does".

 

Topics in this article : , ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network