Growth of news sites harming investment in news gathering, says Lords report

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The rapid growth in the number of online news sites should not mean that the UK relaxes its laws on media ownership, according to a House of Lords report.

Following a lengthy inquiry of more than 20 hearings that in total lasted in excess of 50 hours with interviews of 109 witnesses, the House of Lords communication committee has today published its report into ownership of the news .

The committee found that the proliferation of online news platforms had not been matched by an increase in resources for newsgathering and that much of the news available on new services on the internet was repackaged from elsewhere and supplied by existing news providers.

The report stated: "It was put to us that because of the proliferation of ways to access the news, it is no longer necessary to be concerned about the regulation of media ownership. We do not accept that argument. Much of the news available on the internet and on the new television channels is not new. It is repackaged from elsewhere. The

proliferation of news sources has not been matched by a corresponding expansion in professional and investigative journalism."

Amongst the 109 witnesses to sit before the committee were some of the leading owners and executives of UK news businesses.

Rupert Murdoch, Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey, Daily Mail chairman Viscount Rothermere, Mecom boss David Montgomery along with a host of past and present newspaper editors and observers gave evidence.

Yet the committee rejected arguments of some witnessess - notably Rupert Murdoch and Sly Bailey - calling for the relaxation of ownership rules, saying that ownership regulation and competition law alone was insufficient to ensure a range of voices and high quality news.

The committee noted that despite significant noise surrounding the development of online news platforms, the overwhelming majority of the UK population got its news from traditional TV and radio programmes.

It added that publishers were running newspaper websites that could not yet make sufficient advertising revenue.

The report added: "[E}ven when newspapers run successful internet sites the value of the advertising they sell on these sites does not make up for the value lost. The result of these pressures is that newspaper companies are having to make savings and this is having a particular impact on investment in news gathering and investigative journalism.

"The number of foreign news bureaux is decreasing, and there is an increasing reliance on news agency feed and information derived from the public relations industry. Inside the United Kingdom the regional and local press is under particular pressure."

The report said that similar pressures existed in television, as a result the committee recommended handing new powers to Ofcom to intervene in media mergers and strengthen public interest tests by assessing the impact of such moves on newsgathering.

The recommendations include:

• The impact of a merger on newsgathering should be explicitly considered as part of the public interest test
• Ofcom should be given the power to initiate the public interest test so that it is not only ministers who can decide whether a media merger warrants a public interest investigation
• Legislation should be amended so that Ofcom investigates media mergers only on the basis of the public interest criteria, and the Competition Commission considers only the competition aspects of a merger

The committee made further recommendations, saying that local cross-media mergers between radio and newspaper companies should be subject to the public interest test and so there would be no need for specific restrictions on cross-media mergers at a local level.

It also reaffirmed a commitment to public service broadcasting, adding that it was sceptical that top slicing the licence fee would be a sensible way forward while conceding that ‘commercial public service broadcasters face particular problems as analogue switch-off approaches’ and outlined a series proposals of short and long-term measures as support.

The report also suggested that the BBC had a vital role in maintaining the quality of news and as such the BBC Trust should monitor closely spending on the salaries of its presenters and personalities and assess its impact.

However, the committee added that ‘the commercial public service broadcasters should not be supported at the expense of the ability of the BBC to do what it does best’.