As voters go to the polls in the U.K. local elections on May 5, few will be aware how influenced they are by a depleted local news agenda. In many areas where local seats are being contested, local newspaper coverage is limited to a single publisher—sometimes a single newspaper. Most areas are no longer covered by a daily newspaper, and the online output of weekly titles is limited by reductions in the number of editorial staff.
In our new study, Monopolizing Local News, we examined the increasing dominance of local news by four publishers, and its democratic implications. The findings show how strong publishing monopolies may be emerging in local news, leading to a dearth of plurality in many U.K. regions.
The study shows that the growing concentration of ownership in local newspapers, coupled with increasing cuts to editorial staff, is creating large areas in the U.K. where the public has a very limited choice of local news sources, and diminishing access to original local public interest journalism—as in Port Talbot, where the Port Talbot Guardian closed down in 2009.
These findings suggest that the existing plurality framework is neither promoting nor protecting diversity of news ownership in many local areas across the U.K. They also raise questions about the effectiveness and suitability of potential interventions, such as the BBC’s proposal to support reporting of local authorities.
Media Monopolies
To understand the state of our local press, we used newspaper industry data to map the daily and weekly local newspapers covering each local authority district and parliamentary constituency. Our interactive map shows the provision, ownership, and diversity of local U.K. newspapers. We then layered on existing data about local TV and online news services, to see the extent to which the decline in provision of local newspapers is, or is not, being replaced by new types of news provision.
