Burnham rules out government subsidies to local newspapers

Andy Burnham, the culture secretary, has ruled out the possibility of the Government providing subsidies to help support the struggling regional press industry.

However, Burnham did offer some support to local newspapers by hinting at a “package” to assist the regional sector and also condemned local authorities for launching titles that compete with the local press.

In an interview with the Scarborough Evening News, Burnham said: “This [local authority titles] issue is top of my in-tray at the moment. There has to be a balance and councils are overstepping that.”

Burnham’s comments come just days after the Society of Editors responded to his 10-point plan request on how the Government can step in and help the sector (see Editors ask Burnham to back regional papers).

The Society asked Burnham to look at ways of preventing content aggregators from profiting from third-party news content, as well as discouraging the development of local government websites, which it feels compete with local newspapers over regional content.

However, Burnham seemed to dismiss calls for direct government intervention – “Not a subsidy,” he said -“The government does not have the funds to chuck around anyway, but there might be a package to put together for the local press.”

Scarborough Evening News confirmed that it faced competition from local authority-produced titles “designed and produced to mimic newspapers”, which include a 20-page monthly produced by North Yorkshire County Council, a second monthly produced by East Riding of Yorkshire Council, and a 12-page quarterly produced by Scarborough Borough Council.

Earlier this week the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee of MPs announced that its next inquiry would look into the wide-ranging issues surrounding the future development of local media business.