MPs urge Office of Fair Trading to investigate impact of council newspapers

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons has called for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to launch an investigation into the the effect that council-run newspapers are having on privately-run local newspapers and their effect on local democracy.

In its report on the Future for Local and Regional Media, The Culture, Media and Sport Committee said that some council newspapers were "misleading in nature" and showed political bias. It  also urged the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to amend its guidance on local authorities to make it mandatory for council-funded to clearly state that they are published by a local authority on their front pages.

Committee chairman John Whittingdale said: “We note with concern the growing number of local authority publications that are competing with commercial local newspapers. We also find that some are misleading in nature and do not make it clear that they are council publications. [There is also] evidence of political bias in some local authority news sheets.”

According to a Local Government Association survey of council publications last year, 94.5% of authorities produced a newsletter, magazine or newspaper, with 14.4% of these published at least monthly. Research by the Audit Commission into the impact of council-funded newspapers earlier this year found that almost half of these (47%) accept advertising.

The MPs' report said: “There is a real problem with local authority newspapers and magazines that needs to be addressed. While it is clear that most of these publications, such as Portsmouth City Council's Flagship, are legitimate communications from a council to its citizens, this cannot be said for all local authority publications. Publications such as Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council's H&F News effectively pose as, and compete with, local commercial newspapers and are misleading to the public. It is unacceptable that a local authority can set up a newspaper in direct competition to the local commercial newspaper in this way. Nor should any council publication be a vehicle for political propaganda.”

“The current DCLG guidance in this area is currently being breached. The DCLG should set up a system to monitor this situation closely. However we believe these guidelines, even if adhered to, do not go far enough. There should be specific, detailed guidance for local authority newspapers and magazines which should state that it be mandatory that all publications of this type make clear, not only on the front page but throughout the publication, that they are a local authority publication.”

In January, the Audit Commission's said that the money being spent by councils on publications of this sort was reasonable and that “few council publications are published sufficiently frequently to be viable media for most local advertising”. For this reason, said the report, “we recommend that the Office of Fair Trading should conduct a review specifically on the impact of council publications on commercial local newspapers”.

A full copy of the report can be found by clicking here