By Victoria Mckeown-
The CEO of Newsquest, the country’s leading local news publisher, has criticised plans for the BBC to increase its online local news output across the UK.
The BBC recently announced that it is to redirect significant resource from its highly respected local radio offering into digital local news which would result in the BBC competing directly with commercial local news publishers online.
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Under the plans, the BBC would create 11 investigative reporting teams across the country while increasing its daily online news provision for 43 local areas, and launching dedicated websites covering Bradford, Wolverhampton, Sunderland and Peterborough, with a total of 131 new local news jobs created.
The ambitious plans will expand the reach of the BBC in the target areas and provide them with an opportunity to dig out news in those areas which may ordinarily escape the attention of local news outlets based there on behalf of newsquest.
However, Henry Faure Walker, CEO at Newsquest, (pictured )which publishes 200 news brands has expressed serious concern about the plans. He said on the BBC’s Media Show: “We’re very concerned about the BBC’s expansion into local online news. We think it’s potentially very damaging.
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“It will further undermine the efforts of ourselves and other commercial news publishers to build a sustainable future because it diverts eyeballs away from our sites – which we rely on to drive advertising revenue and to drive digital subscription revenue – to the BBC.”
Faure Walker’s comments followed an interview on the same show with the BBC’s director of local nations, Rhodri Talfan Davies, who defended the expansion plans which include launching further into areas such as Bradford, Wolverhampton, Sunderland and Peterborough.
Faure Walker said: “We are the proud publishers of the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford. We employ 18 local journalists in Bradford and we think the market is very well-served. We reach approximately 80% of the Bradford population each month so I don’t see the need for the BBC to come into this space.
He added, as he called on Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator to intervene: “The BBC should not be using the licence fee to do things that are already well-provided by the commercial news sector and make it even tougher for local news publishers.”Talfan Davies told the show’s presenter Katie Razzall: “We’re not here to steal market share from anybody. We’re here to provide a trusted consistent news service to local communities as our charter requires of us.”
The BBC has already ramped up investment in its North American operation in recent months, doubling its number of journalists there, and hiring two new editorial executives, despite undergoing cuts at home. both journalistically and financially.
The BBC said in February that it planned to grow its US and Canada digital news team from 18 to 38. In late October it announced the appointment of a new US head of digital journalism and a senior vice president of global programming and content strategy.
The ambitions expressed by the BBC does not sit well with Newquest, but it could just be the competition it needs. It is yet to be seen whether ofcom find this dispute worthy of intervention.
Ofcom has been contacted for comment
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