MPs reflect on their paper round days
Plus: thoughts on the future of local media debate + publishers creating their own social networks
Good evening,
The latest What I’ve Been Reading digest into your inbox this evening with some hopefully interesting reads, apologies it is slightly later than usual. I spent some time this afternoon at the Foxton in Preston where we presented certificates to our young reporters to mark them completing their Blog Foxton initiative with us - reporting the news for Blog Preston. It was good fun and there was tinsel involved in the photos. See more below on the initiative…
And now, to the business of interesting things from the world of journalism, digital media and more. Starting with a trip to the House of Commons
MPs debate future of local media - Parliament.TV and Hansard - the full session is close to an hour-and-a-half but it gave a glimpse into perhaps where the government’s long-trailed Local News Strategy is heading. Back in the summer last year when Labour swept into Downing Street one of the culture secretary Lisa Nandy’s commitments was to consider the future of local media. This debate saw plenty of name-checking of local titles and saw Joe Robertson eloquently outline the state of publishing on the Isle of Wight - where as well as a Newsquest title there is a thriving independent news sector. But not everywhere is like this.
To me one of the most interesting contributions, in amongst lots of MPs reminiscing about having a paper round growing up and lots of rather twee memories of ‘how it all used to be’, was from recently reshuffled Jim McMahon. He hit the nail on the head to me, the government can exert a lot of time and effort essentially shuffling around existing public notice requirements or warm words, but it’s the distorted relationship with tech platforms which has ultimately blasted an enormous hole in the side of established media, and independent media, while also opening up the competitive playing field. The problem is, we’re all playing on a field surrounded by Meta, Google and others rules. And they can change them whenever they like.
Obtaining some kind of consistent revenue settlement to support local news publishing (and ensuring that is ring-fenced and actually going into the frontline reporting itself) will be a challenge for the government to do but the action being taken by the CMA on Google is a first baby step.
The UK is one of the few places with a Google Showcase agreement, which gives consistent revenue and exposure to publishers both large and small, and was previously home to the Meta Community Journalism project (which funded dozens of reporters and helped start careers, while ensuring very localised community stories were done) through to the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service which recently hit the 500,000 stories mark and is a bedrock of local reporting across the country.
So in the UK, we can be innovative, we can be collaborative, and it’s crucial the government help what already exists (established or independent) to find sustainability and also meet the changing demands of readers (more vertical video, graphic-led storytelling) and also encourages places that don’t have the what Mr Robinson outlined in the Isle of Wight to be served by publishers who might be up for expanding what they do already.
A few bits I’ve written before about the future of local media in the UK
News publishers who are beating social media networks at their own game - Jessica Patterson, Press Gazette - two good profiles from Village Media in Canada and the Daily Maverick in South Africa. Both have invested in creating their owned and operated social platforms built into what they do. I think we’ll see more of this as search and social traffic remains volatile, you need to make your direct destination the most appealing community-driven place it can be. I remember speaking to Jeff Elgie at Village about Spaces a couple of years back and it’s fantastic to hear it’s happened and appears to be thriving too. Building a community around a news brand will be crucial to longevity and sustainability.
You had my extended thoughts regarding the future of local media in the UK so just the two for this week’s digest. As always if there’s something you think I should be featuring as a read, listen or watch then do ping it over.
Thanks very much for reading - heading towards 250 people receiving this digest each Wednesday which felt very far off when it began!
Have a great rest of the week. Keep going.
Ed