A journalist of fifty years standing offers a personal and independent assessment of the often troubled relationship between public figures and the British news media.
Local newspapers across the country have been publicising a campaign by press proprietors to persuade the government to continue a legal requirement for changes in alcohol licensing to be advertised within each locality.
Under the headline Last Call, identical front pages warned that the public’s “right to know” was threatened by a review of licensing laws in England and Wales aimed at cutting red tape in the hospitality industry.
In a co-ordinated publicity blitz, the News Media Association argued that ending the need for alcohol licensing notices in local papers would deliver “a hammer blow to local democratic engagement”.
Journalists were said to use these notices as leads for stories, “seeking reaction to the proposals and comment from local residents” – a justification which led to hollow laughter in the many communities served by free newspapers which employ few if any local reporters.
Special pleading by the media owners for a continuation of the requirement for publicans, restaurateurs, club and shops owners to have to pay for public notices only serves the underline the proprietors’ reliance on the income they derive through the archaic rules which govern the duty placed on local authorities to advertise notices affecting, planning highways and other services.
The UK’s much diminished stock of regional daily and weekly papers is largely controlled by a handful of conglomerates – including Reach, Newsquest and National World – which effectively operate as local monopolies.
This latest campaign reflects their determination to maintain what some community news organisations claim is effectively a stranglehold on a vital source of local advertising revenue.
Under legislation dating back to 1883, only registered newspapers which are published on a daily or weekly basis (or in some cases fortnightly), and which reach specified thresholds for circulation, qualify under the legislation.
Despite monopolising local income many free papers lacking in original content
Many free papers published by the dominant groups now have little or no original content and to save costs they print a minimal number of copies, often only enough to meet the required circulation thresholds for public advertising.
Increasingly newspaper bins in town centres and shopping arcades offering free copies have all but disappeared.
While some local authorities already question the value for money issues raised by falling circulations, there is no doubt that for local weeklies which do still employ locally based journalists, the advertising revenue derived from public notices has become a financial lifeline.
Often two, three or even more pages are filled with these small, classified advertisements from councils and other statutory undertakings, an irreplaceable income stream.
However, wider issues are at stake in big conurbations where monopoly free newspapers tend to dominate.
A share of the available advertising spend cannot be accessed to help finance community-led newspapers or magazines which are trying to fill the void left by a dearth of locally based journalists.
They fail to qualify because invariably they can only afford to publish on a monthly basis and lack an audited circulation.
The back end of papers are a shadow of what they once were, long since having lost the pages filled by advertisements from house agents, car dealers, furniture showrooms and the like, so no wonder the media association is fighting back with its “Defend Your Right to Know” campaign.
In an astute move aimed at shoring up the obligations placed on local authorities, the News Media Association, with the support of Google News, has launched a national online service listing public notice advertisements.
By entering a postcode, the Public Notice Portal identifies any notices or applications which are being advertised in the press.
Again, the proprietors insist that the portal will help ensure that individuals or groups will have an opportunity to find out about and comment on planning applications, road closures, licensing changes or any other proposal which might impact their community.
When the portal was launched the association said that it would display more than 10,000 live notices at any given time. The website was built by Reach plc with £1million from the Google News Initiative.
Unfairness of rules exposed by challenge facing Barnet’s community newspaper
Barnet Council is spending not far short of £300,000 a year on advertising public notices about planning applications and other statutory announcements such as road closures and traffic restrictions.
The lion’s share of the annual budget goes to Newsquest’s weekly free newspaper, the Barnet Borough Times but there is zero for its rival, another free paper, the monthly Barnet Post.
Social Spider Community News, which publishes five free newspapers in north and east London – including the Barnet Post – is campaigning for a change in the law to allow a wider selection of news outlets to earn income from public notices.
Newsquest, which is the UK’s second largest press proprietor, secures the vast bulk of local authority advertising not only in Barnet but also in many other London boroughs and across much of south-east of England.
David Floyd, editor of the Barnet Post – and a co-director of the Social Spider community interest company – says that because they can only afford to print monthly, their papers fail to qualify under the 1883 convention on public notice advertisements.
“We have been arguing for years for a change in this archaic law but whenever we do, we get blow back from the media owners.
“So, a legacy title like the Barnet Times, with little or no original content of its own from the locality, can take advantage of public advertising.”
An FOI request revealed that in 2023-24 Barnet Council spent £262,000 advertising public notices, “many times” more than the total turnover of the Barnet Post.
Adding to Floyd’s frustration is that much of the original content in the Barnet Times and in many other nearby Newsquest titles, is from the BBC-funded local democracy reporters who are locally based and who are employed by the Social Spider group.