Editor: Local newspapers facing grim future

Jan 22 2010 by Alison Lowson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

OVER the past few weeks the Government’s culture committee has been discussing the crisis facing the Scottish newspaper industry.

Falling circulation, a drop in advertising revenue, new technology and proposals to move public information notices (PINs) online have created some of the most challenging conditions ever to face the industry.

On the plus side local newspapers like the Perthshire Advertiser are weathering the storm better than the national papers and that is due in no small measure to the loyalty of our readers, who value our coverage of issues that really matter to them.

I was invited on to BBC-2’s Politics Show (still showing on the BBC Iplayer if you’re interested) last Tuesday to talk about the future of Scottish local newspapers and I think the interviewer was surprised by my optimism.

I firmly believe that local newspapers actually matter and there will always be an appetite for local news.

Whether we are reporting the local court or whether we are reporting the local council, that is a way of bringing the way the community works into everybody’s home – and what the local councils do matters to just about everybody.

That said, one of the biggest challenges facing local papers is the Scottish Government’s ill-conceived plans for changing the law to allow PINs to be advertised electronically in place of newspapers.

The Scottish Government’s case is essentially based on cost savings with little consideration for the democratic process, namely that information which legislation requires to be communicated to the public. This should be targeted to give maximum visibility on a cost-effective basis.

According to Ofcom’s Media Tracker, only 4 per cent of people in the UK use the internet as the main source of information about their local area. After television the principal source is newspapers, accounting for 24 per cent (understood to be higher in Scotland) – six times more that the internet.

It must be acknowledged that PINs do contribute to our all-important advertising revenues but politicians must understand that such revenues are essential to the provision of journalistic services for our communities, including our coverage of local and national politics.

The Scottish Government’s plans will undermine the public’s right to know. There will be the risk of less open, more secretive government and of many grass roots issues being decided without consultation and debate. It is difficult to understand how the Scottish Government can contemplate disenfranchising large numbers of the public by relying on less effective communication channels.

If the Scottish Government wants the local media to not only survive but thrive then it must act now to scrap these plans – or our society will suffer with it.

ALISON LOWSON, EDITOR

Email your comments to alowson@s-un.co.uk