DCMS committee launches inquiry into sustainability of local journalism
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has this week launched an inquiry into the challenges facing local news.
Titled the ‘Sustainability of Local Journalism’, the inquiry will welcome evidence until 31st March and intends to examine the operation of the market for local journalism and how competition from social media and public service broadcasters affect news outlets.
MPs will also consider the impact of the findings of the Cairncross Review with particular relevance to ensuring the continued and the long-term supply of local journalism.
DCMS Committee Chair Julian Knight MP, pictured, said: “It is clear that the market for local news journalism has shifted considerably over the past two decades. The need to know what is going on in your area is as great as it ever has been, arguably greater, but there is a very real challenge in how to deliver that.
“Local news organisations increasingly face competition from social media despite moving their own titles online. How can we maintain and protect the type of journalism that reports what your council is doing, coverage that is essential to local democracy? We’re asking what more needs to be done to make local news journalism sustainable and what form that support should take.”
The terms of reference for the committee and call for evidence can be found here.
Fourteen publishers join Community News Project after Meta funding boost
Fourteen publishers are joining the Community News Project (CNP) creating 18 new reporter roles as the scheme expands with £6 million funding from Meta.
The funding boost will see reporters cover communities on the Scottish west coast island of Bute, people with disabilities in Brighton and Hove, and the Latin American community in Elephant and Castle.
Launched in 2019, the CNP is a partnership between the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), Meta (formerly Facebook) and nine regional news publishers. The scheme aims to support local journalism while improving diversity in UK newsrooms. The new publishers were selected to join the project after a tender process in which applicants were asked to demonstrate how a reporter could engage with a under-served community and/or location.
Announced this week by the NCTJ, Tindle Newspapers will be joining the scheme with four reporters covering the Welsh language communities around Aberystwyth, the farming communities around Newton Abbott, and locations in the Tamar Valley and Wellington area in Somerset.
DC Thomson will also be joining the scheme and will cover areas of Fort William, Lochaber and Skye, and the Western Isles.
Sarah Brown, head of local news partnerships, Northern Europe at Meta, said: “At the heart of the CNP is a goal to surface real life stories from under-represented groups from our first ever Welsh language title in Aberystwyth to the African and South American communities in London.
“We look forward to working with the NCTJ and our publishing partners in onboarding a new cohort of trainees who will share stories and viewpoints that don’t often get told.”
Joanne Butcher, chief executive of the NCTJ, said: “This brilliant project continues to be a success story for the industry thanks to Meta’s on-going investment and the support of the publishers involved in the scheme.
“It already had diversity at its core with more than 60 per cent of the reporters coming from under-represented backgrounds to report on 80 previously underserved communities.
“With a welcome increase in funding and 23 wide-ranging news media partners now covering 100 communities, we have an even more diverse range of publishers involved in the scheme who are as committed as we are to the sustainability of quality, trusted local news journalism.”
The 14 new publishers, and the 18 communities they will serve can be found here.
Tributes paid to former Guild of Editors President
Tributes have been paid to Colin Brannigan, pictured above, a former President of the Guild of Editors, and honorary member of the Society of Editors who has died at a hospice near his home at Ripon, North Yorkshire.
More commonly known for his editorship of The Star, Sheffield, for ten years from 1968 to 1978, Brannigan was a giant in the newspaper industry both locally and nationally.
He started his career at the Sheffield Star as a sub editor in the early 60s and quickly rose through the ranks to become news editor and then editor.
Known for his fervent campaigning zeal on behalf of readers, Brannigan took up a wide range of local issues to improve their wellbeing. His achievements had a profound and lasting impact on welfare services in the Sheffield region and his ability to identify problems in the community led to him winning a top national award in 1970, Campaigning Journalist of the Year, in the British Press Awards for a campaign called On Our Conscience.
It uncovered vulnerable people in the Sheffield area who were in need of help and a team of journalists worked for several months to identify and highlight areas of neglect, their work leading to the publication of a Penguin paperback.
Nationally, he held various positions in the industry and served as president of the Guild of Editors from 1979 – 80. The Guild of Editors went on to merge with the Association of British Editors in 1999 to form the Society of Editors.
Brannigan was also a Council member of the Guild of Editors and chairman of the National Council for the Training of Journalists. He was awarded an OBE for services to journalism in 1993.
Former colleague Nigel Pickover said: “Colin was a trailblazing editor who lit a path for those who followed him.
“I had a disagreement with him at interview, but he clearly forgave me as he appointed me as a trainee reporter with The Star and we stayed in close touch over five decades.
“He was a passionate, campaigning editor and I had his guiding spirit alongside as I fought my own battles,” added Nigel, who edited three dailies including The Eastern Daily Press and the Ipswich Star.
“It was true to Colin’s pioneering attitude that on retirement he launched Brannigan’s Newsletter, a guide to the latest news in the developing online world of newspapers. It became an early touchstone for the digital age.”
Have your say on reform of the Human Rights Act 1998
The Society will be submitting a response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on Reform of the Human Rights Act 1998 ahead of the deadline on 10 March. Alongside proposals to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights, the MOJ is proposing to strengthen protections for freedom of expression particularly in respect of competing rights such as privacy. The consultation is also proposing to better protect journalists’ sources and higher the threshold for injunctions. Anyone wishing to submit their thoughts on the proposals should email claire.meadows@societyofeditors.org by Friday 25 February.