“As expected, these do not address the issue of “adverse impact on local newspapers in taking paid advertising to support local authority information sheets” which the Digital Britain report had identified should be investigated.
The Audit Commission’s letter and evidence supporting the findings are now available on their website.
David Newell (pictured), director of the Newspaper Society, said: “The NS has been aware since last summer that the Audit Commission was only able to look at part of the picture regarding council publications. The Commission’s research has however confirmed that 90 per cent of councils publish a periodical and that 47 per cent of them - some 150 publications in England alone - contain private sector advertising. It is quite wrong that local authorities should compete directly with independent regional and local newspapers for advertising revenue in this way.
“The Commission’s recommendation, that councils review the value of their spending on communication with the public and their editorial policies to ensure these are politically neutral and publicly defensible, must be implemented. The question of damaging impact on local media should now be referred to the Office of Fair Trading, as announced by the Government in the Commons debate on local newspapers on 13 January, as a matter of urgency.”
The Audit Commission has found that 5 per cent of council publications in England are published more frequently than monthly, 14 per cent are published more than 10 times a year and 27 per cent more than quarterly. Only 12 per cent are published at the ideal ‘value for money’ level of once or twice a year, as specified by last year's research into The Impact of Council Publications by LGComms. This found that residents are more likely to be informed about council services and benefits, satisfied with the council and feel it offers value for money if the publication comes out once or twice a year and less likely if it is published 7-12 times a year.”
Relevant links:
NS letter to Audit Commission, 1 December.
War Rages over Council-Run Newspapers (Guardian).
Background and submissions (public sector competition page).
