Select committee: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 4
Seventh Report - Sustainability of local journalism
Published 25 Jan 2023
Paragraph 47
Addressed to Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Sustainability of local journalism All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Statutory notices in local newspapers remain an important means of keeping the public informed and a vital revenue stream for many local news publishers. But the criteria used by some councils to determine where notices are published appear to be outdated. We recommend that the Government review existing rules and practices for placing statutory notices in local newspapers and whether local councils need guidance on how to measure the reach and audience levels of news publications in a digital age. This should include an assessment of how the revenue stream from statutory notices can be made more easily accessible for new entrants to the local news market. The Government should set out the progress of this review in its response to this report.
From: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Seventh Report - Sustainability of local journalism (HC 153), paragraph 47, 25 January 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 17 May 2023 (deadline 9 May 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and agrees with its overall assessment of journalism's role and the sector's financial challenges, while setting out varied positions on individual recommendations.
- On a long-term public interest news fund, it "continue[s] to explore options for additional fiscal measures", while "mindful of the current financial climate". Any further funding would build on the Future News Fund model.
- On statutory notices, it does "not intend to conduct a review" of rules and practices, citing the risk that intervention could harm an "already fragile industry". It is monitoring the sector's Public Notice Portal.
- On an audit of public money for local news, it says it "would therefore not be appropriate" to analyse expenditure with a view to redistribution. It describes a Cabinet Office pilot with Nub News to test its value as an advertising channel after the local elections.
- On fair remuneration for smaller publishers, it points to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, under which the DMU "could" set conduct requirements, including on "fair and reasonable payment terms". These would vary case by case.