MNA Media: News review values high quality local journalism
A wide-ranging review of the future sustainability of quality journalism has been welcomed by the news industry.
The News Media Association, representing national, regional and local news organisations, said it wanted to work with ministers to take forward the recommendations of the Cairncross Review as a “matter of urgency”.
“This is a thoughtful report which recognises the critical role of written journalism to democracy and sets out a series of detailed recommendations, many of which respond directly to the proposals put forward by the NMA and our members,” the association said in a statement.
“These include a Competition and Markets Authority market study into the ‘complex and opaque’ online advertising market, new measures aimed at constraining the behaviour of the online platforms, an examination of the BBC’s impact on commercial publishers, funding support for local news publishers, and tax reliefs such as extending VAT zero rating for online news publications.”
The Society of Editors (SoE) welcomed the review’s support for the reporting of local democracy – including the expansion of the BBC local news partnerships – but executive director Ian Murray said it was essential the press remained free from political interference.
SoE executive director Ian Murray said: “Crucial to all of the recommendations for what is really state support for the local media industry in particular, are the report’s insistence that bodies such as the proposed institution are free from political and other interference in deciding what constitutes public interest news worth supporting.
“The press in the UK has not fought long and hard to maintain its independence and freedom to then find itself regulated by state-appointed bodies, no matter how well meaning was their original creation.”
Martin Wright, editor-in-chief of the Midland News Association, which publishes the Express & Star and Shropshire Star, said: “This is a thorough report on the newspaper industry and I welcome the fact that it recognises the importance of high quality local journalism to democracy.
“We are keen to see how the government plans to take forward the recommendations contained within the report and to understand how these will support sustainable local journalism in future.”
