But, according to the Newspaper Society, he warned that local publishers were under serious commercial pressure and must be allowed to consolidate so they could invest in their businesses.
Speaking in a House of Lords debate on the importance of the creative industries on Thursday, he condemned the recent “dinosaur decision” from the OFT which ignored expert advice from Ofcom and “torpedoed” the sale of seven weekly newspapers in Kent.
“The same thing happened a few years ago when Trinity Mirror tried to sell eight free weekly newspapers in Northampton and Peterborough to Johnston Press,” he said. “A ruling from the competition authorities meant the sale had to be abandoned. And, my Lords, seven of those eight titles have now closed.”
“The OFT is preventing the changes in the local newspaper industry which will allow it to survive, undermining local democracy in the process,” said Lord Black.
The relaxation of the local cross-media controls had been an important step but this meant nothing without a more realistic approach to local media mergers and to the assessment of competition in local markets by the competition authorities. Swift reforms to the merger regime were needed “if further deeply damaging decisions are to be avoided.” They must ensure the OFT takes account of three factors:
• The changes in the highly competitive local advertising markets as a result of the growth of digital media;
• The changes in the way people consume news making it impossible to exercise a local news monopoly; and
• That the creation of publishing organisations with scale and ability to invest is the only effective way to protect the viability of local titles and maintain plurality of voice.
Lord Black called for urgent action “to show we understand the importance of our local press in the creative economy and in local democracy and set publishers free to renew their businesses for a new age.
