We must not take the news industry for granted: its future is in jeopardy
4 min read
The future of news matters. A healthy democracy relies on informed citizens sharing an understanding of basic facts of the world around them.
We cannot take the future of news for granted. In November, the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee, which I chaired, published its report on this issue. We found that the economics of mass market journalism are worsening, public trust is low, and a growing number of people actively avoid mainstream reporting.
When I opened the Lords debate on our findings, it was disappointing to report that these trends have not been reversed. Press Gazette last month reported that digital ad spend with news brands has fallen by a third since 2019. Less than half of people surveyed in a recent Opinium poll said that they regularly watched television news, while only a quarter said that they visited news websites.
Increasingly, tech giants act as gatekeepers, algorithmically determining what information is pushed to the public while competing for advertising spend with the news outlets they control access to. This is becoming more significant with the advent of AI-generated news summaries diverting readers from existing news providers – compounded by a real fear of legislation to permit those summaries being trained on copyrighted news sources without proper attribution or financial recompense.
An area of real concern for us was the decline in local journalism and the development of ‘news deserts’. Significant areas of the country now lack a properly funded local newspaper holding local government to account. That this deterioration is happening as more power is being devolved to mayors and unitary authorities makes it even more alarming. Power without scrutiny is dangerous.
High-quality news will not cease to exist. Some of us are news junkies and are prepared to pay well for access. Even at the local level there are examples in the affluent metropolitan areas that there is a market for new subscription-based news outlets. But we are a minority, and good-quality national and local news cannot be the preserve of the professional classes and urban areas alone. There is a limit to what any government can or should do, but when it comes to local journalism, more needs to be done.
Our report identified steps the government could take, including tax incentives for hiring local journalists, and changes to local government advertising rules. We also called for a review of business rates relief on local newspaper offices introduced by the last government. It is disappointing, then, that since our report, the Chancellor simply allowed those reliefs to expire, and details of the promised local media strategy remain vague.
Another area where the government has failed to grasp the nettle is on Slapps (strategic lawsuits against public participation). Before the election we seemed to be in a positive place, with commitments from all front benches to end this form of aggressive lawfare.
Unfortunately, the government now seems determined not to legislate. The ability for the rich, powerful and sometimes criminal to shut down exposure or criticism by abusing our legal system is a serious threat to the future of news that we can rectify quickly, if there is the political will to do so.
Progress has been similarly slow on clarifying the rules on foreign state ownership of British news outlets. The government has still not brought forward secondary legislation to implement the provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. This is vital to provide clarity to the news industry about future investment from sovereign wealth funds.
The government has had nine months to sort this out and it is high time it did so. In a time of global uncertainty, we need a strong, independent news media more than ever. There is much work for the industry itself to do to deliver that, but there is also a need for politicians and government to provide a framework for the news industry to thrive.
