Audit Commission Study Will Not Examine Impact of Council Newspapers
Following a meeting with the Audit Commission over the summer, which confirmed that their upcoming inquiry into council publications will not be looking into the impact of such publications on independent local newspapers, the NS has written to the Office of Fair Trading to ask if they will now be taking this up.
In his earlier response to the NS, Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred had explained that “the Commission’s role and expertise do not lend themselves to examining the health of local newspapers or isolating the impacts of specific local authority practices on commercial bodies. This element of the Digital Britain invitation appears better suited to regulators with a specific competition remit.” Instead they plan to carry out wider research into the value achieved by council spending on communicating with the public in order to spread good practice.
On the launch of Digital Britain by DCMS and BIS, then Communications Minister Stephen Carter wrote to the Audit Commission highlighting “the adverse impact on local newspapers of the increasing role of local authorities in taking paid advertising to support local authority information sheets.” He invited the Commission to “undertake a specific inquiry into the relationship between advertising in local authority and commercial newspapers, the prevalence of this practice and if restraints should be placed on local authority activity in this field.” He said the inquiry “should take into account that the Department of Communities and Local Government is currently in the middle of a two-part consultation on revising the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity. Consequently the inquiry must take into consideration both the existing statutory guidance and these consultations.”
Lynne Anderson, communications director at the NS, wrote to the OFT explaining the limited scope of the Audit Commission inquiry and asked if they would now be taking up this aspect of the Digital Britain invitation. “It would be unfortunate, given the concerns expressed by the OFT, by Digital Britain and by ministers at a senior level within the Government, if the market impact of local authority publications on the commercial local media industry was not examined at all and if no-one was able to make any recommendations to Government on whether constraints should be placed on those local authorities which may be overstepping the mark,” she wrote.
The issue is expected to be raised at a lunch with Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw being hosted by NS president David Fordham later this month.
- NS letter to Audit Commission
- NS submission to DCLG consultation on Local Authority Publicity Code, March 2009
- Ben Bradshaw attacks council newspapers
- Further background
For further information please contact Lynne Anderson on 020 7632 7421 or e-mail lynne_anderson@newspapersoc.org.uk.