BBCThe BBC director general's announcement about plans to buy-in video news for the Local TV service has brought a mixed reaction among senior members of the regional press.

Mark Thompson announced yesterday at the Society of Editors conference, in Glasgow, that the BBC might buy content from regional newspapers if it expands the online TV service beyond its trial base in the West Midlands.

Trinity Mirror Regional's editorial director, Neil Benson, gave a cautious welcome to the plans.

"The realisation they have come to is that they do need content providers. It's encouraging because that does give us an opportunity; we have got more people in the field than they have and we are doing more and more multimedia," Mr Benson told Journalism.co.uk.

"We still have some concerns, the jury is still out on it until we get a clearer picture of where it's going to go; there are a lot of details still to be understood."

Last month Trinity Mirror Regional announced plans to re-launch all its regional and local newspaper websites to focus heavily on video content. It also announced plans to invest in training a substantial number of video journalists across its titles.

Johnston Press announced earlier in the year that it was converting its newsrooms to fully take on multimedia publication. Its chief executive, Tim Bowdler, remained sceptical about the need for a BBC Local TV service.

Mr Bowdler told Journalism.co.uk: "It does seem rather to suggest that they need the content.

"Perhaps the trial has suggested to them that their own resources are not capable of producing the sort of rich local content that they need for a credible offering.

"They have recognised that rich content is available from the regional press. Since we already provide it, and will increasingly be providing it online and in audio/visual form, one wonders why public money is necessary to provide a similar service that will basically be regurgitating, apparently, our content."

Mr Benson added: "I think he [Mark Thompson] was floating the idea, the principle, that buying in content from local publishers was something they would have to sign up to but I don't think they have got any of the detail behind it yet.

"We would need to understand what that means - there were a couple of mixed messages in there about whether it would be just a loose arrangement or whether it would be a contractual arrangement, whether it would be one-off pieces or whether it would be a contract to buy in three pieces of video every day."

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