Hyperlocal news site investigates Isle of Wight council media budget

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An investigation by hyperlocal news site VentnorBlog found that the Isle of Wight council has spent more than £900,000 on payments to the media in the past recorded year to date.

Following a Freedom of Information request by the community site co-founder Simon Perry, the council released statistics showing a total of almost £400,000 spent by the council on media for the year 2009-10 to date, not including figures for recruitment or a council image campaign advertising.

The biggest single recipient of these funds was the County Press, which has reportedly received more than half of the council's media spend every year where figures are available, for the past decade.

From 2000-01 to 2008-09, the amount spent with CP rose by 300 per cent.

While Perry says he accepts the County Press may be best placed to fulfil some of the statutory requirements of council advertising - as the only weekly newspaper currently published on the island with what the council claim are "unrivalled" distribution figures - he says the public will be concerned by the overall figures.

"The communication budget is something that has caused people a lot of concern," he told Journalism.co.uk. "It's totally to do with the amount. It makes sense that they need to put stuff in the County Press but also that it goes online."

The Isle of Wight council told Journalism.co.uk it has already tried to make more use of the internet for advertising.

"The council has, in response to economic pressures, sought to reduce its advertising budget and explore more efficient ways of disseminating information such as increased use of online and social media," a spokesperson said. "We would expect the overall advertising spend to reduce considerably in the coming years."

He cited rising advertising costs, campaigns for the entertainments and leisure industry, public awareness campaigns and a new local government structure for the recorded high spend.

He added that the reported figures from the VentnorBlog in relation to County Press spend includes £12,000 a year for leasing their former offices in Newport and should therefore not all be counted as advertising revenue.

Alan Marriott, editor and director of the Isle of Wight County Press told Journalism.co.uk that competition for the weekly paper in terms of advertising reach is currently limited.

"Of course the IW Council places a high percentage of its advertising spend with the County Press." he said. "It is a no brainer to use a newspaper which, according to the council's own, and the paper's last independent research figures (two separate studies) show that between 80 and 92 per cent of Islanders read the paper in any given month."

He added: "There are no significant print or web alternatives for the council to use on the Isle of Wight."

Perry told Journalism.co.uk he hopes to develop these findings using citizen investigation websites, to try and gain a wider comparative perspective of the issue.

He is also continuing to go through the original data for the Isle of Wight to find out where the money is being spent.