Inquiry into council newspapers

Just a short one but I’m delighted to see that the politicians are awake to the threat of council run newspapers.

According to holdthefrontpage: “The Digital Britain report said it would be “against the public interest” for local papers to be rendered unviable by the flight of paid-for advertising to local authority publications.” http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/090616digbritreact.shtml

I’ve said before that I have no problem with council newsletters. Indeed, I can see the strong value of informing tax payers of what their money is being spent on.

My issue has always been the council’s pursuit of advertising revenues and dressing council sheets up as proper newspapers.

I’ve addressed my arguments before here: https://monkeysandtypewriters.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/council-journalists-arent-best-value/

But I still haven’t heard a convincing argument as to why councils need newspapers rather than newsletters.