Regional publisher Newsquest is facing questions from the NUJ over the wide gap between the funding it receives from the BBC for its Local Democracy Reporters and what they are actually paid by the publisher.
Some 29 LDRs work for Newsquest titles, paid via funding from the BBC. The NUJ discovered through a Freedom of Information Act request that the BBC pays Newsquest up to £38,782 per year for each LDR – but those reporters are then paid as little as £24,000 per year by the publisher.
Newsquest said it “entirely rejects” the NUJ findings, which it claims do not take into account additional employment costs above base salaries, for example employers’ national insurance (which would add approximately £2,000 in costs to a £24,000 salary).
LDRs provide core local politics and council coverage for Newsquest’s newspapers and websites. On the Swindon Advertiser, for example, the LDR writes around two stories a day on everything from major planning applications to education – some of which are syndicated to Yahoo, providing extra revenue for Newsquest.
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The NUJ said there is “more than £10,000” between the funding that Newsquest receives for each of its Local Democracy Reporters and the cost to Newsquest of employing them.
The journalists’ union made its complaint after Newsquest, which is owned by US local publishing giant Gannett, in April rejected a 6% salary increase for its Local Democracy Reporters that had been proposed by the company’s NUJ LDR chapel.
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The 29 LDRs at Newsquest were instead given a 1.5% pay increase, “using only the annual uplift in funding provided to it by the BBC”, an increase which the NUJ said was obligatory.
The union said: “Experienced, senior qualified regional LDRs have often been left struggling on the bare minimum of £24,000 as double-digit inflation has undermined their living standards.”
But on Wednesday Newsquest hit out at the NUJ’s claims, calling it a “flawed assessment which completely fails to take into account” additional expenses.
What is the Local Democracy Reporting Service and how much do LDRs earn?
The Local Democracy Reporting Service launched at the beginning of 2018 to improve coverage of UK local governance amid a funding crisis for local news. They are paid for by the BBC as a Charter commitment.
A total of 165 Local Democracy Reporters are allocated to newsrooms in the four UK nations, the overwhelming majority of them within large regional news publishers Reach, Newsquest and National World.
The BBC’s response to the NUJ’s FOI request said that in 2021/22, the “maximum funding per filled LDR post” outside London was £36,627 (Newsquest does not employ any LDRs in London). Funding can be lower than the maximum if a LDR post is left empty for a portion of the year – for example, if a role were vacant for 10% of a year, the funding supplied would be 10% lower.
In 2022/23, the BBC stipulated that a full-time senior LDR based outside London should be paid a minimum salary of £23,700.
The BBC said that salary stipulation is set “at such a level that ensures there is no scope or incentive for the supplier to retain unused funding through paying lower salaries”.
The salary minimums, as well as the funding overall, increase each year either by 1.5% or in line with the retail prices index, whichever is less – meaning for the 2023/24 financial year, the minimum salary for Local Democracy Reporters outside London should be approximately £24,055.
Maximum funding per reporter outside London in 2023/24, in turn, should be approximately £37,700 – leaving nearly £13,700 to cover the non-salary expenses associated with an LDR.
The BBC says total funding “covers all remuneration, expenses, outgoings and other payments… including but not limited to salaries, wages, commissions, incentive payments, bonuses (even if not due and payable at that time), cost of benefits, National Insurance or other social security contributions or payments, pension contributions, PAYE/income tax remittances, holiday pay and payments in respect of any other emolument”.
While many Newsquest LDRs earn near the minimum of £24,000, senior LDRs outside London at Reach reportedly earned a minimum of £30,000 in the 2022/23 financial year.
What did the NUJ and Newsquest say?
The NUJ said it “acknowledges that employers also have to meet other expenses incurred by their LDRs over the length of the three-year fixed contracts, including the provision of kit such as laptops and phones.
“However, the BBC states in the FOI that ‘where a supplier’s annual LDR employment costs are less than the agreed funding, the difference is retained by the supplier’.
“The NUJ believes that in Newsquest’s case, where often only the minimum salary is paid, only very limited additional expenses are incurred and therefore LDR roles become a lucrative income earner with a large part of the £10,000+ ‘headroom’ between normal employment costs and the funding provided being kept.”
A spokesperson for the Newsquest NUJ Local Democracy Reporters’ chapel added: “We thank the BBC for the 1.5% annual rise but feel disappointed that Newsquest is unable or unwilling to release more of the money they receive for us directly to the LDRs – especially in these extremely tough financial times.”
A Newsquest spokesperson strongly disputed that claim, telling Press Gazette: “We entirely reject this flawed assessment which completely fails to take into account National Insurance, Employer Tax, Employer Pension contribution, the LDR bonus scheme, laptop and technology provision, licences and all the other real costs of hiring and supporting LDRs in our local newsrooms.
“It’s a shame that the NUJ continues to try and pick holes in a scheme that has done so much to sustain local government and public sector reporting across the UK.”
Previously the LDR chapel at Newsquest attempted to secure a £26,000 minimum salary or 6% pay increase for the 2023/24 financial year, which the company rejected.
The NUJ claimed to be “aware of LDRs forced to consider second jobs to bolster their income because of the low pay and rising living costs”.
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