In a recent parliamentary debate on the state of local newspapers, Derek Wyatt, Labour MP for Sittingbourne & Sheppey, made reference to the The Guardian’s status as the subsidiary of a charity, the Scott Trust as opposed to it’s rivals who are for-profit ventures. He went on to propose the model for local media as an answer, whether in part of whole, to the trouble facing newspapers.
Wyatt said, ”There will be a Guardian alternative locally for groups of people wanting to set up not for profit newspapers often online but need funding.” The suggestion here is that at a local level the answer might be the Guardian-style of ownership whereby the media is part of a charitable trust or social enterprise, and a not-for-profit operation.
It’s an interesting suggestion on the day that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced the eight successful bidders for the Independently Funded News Consortia pilots which aim to deliver local television coverage.
These are two very different solutions. Existing, large and profit-hungry media companies such as ITV, Trinity Mirror and Johnstone Press compared with independent, grass-roots community groups setting up as charitable organisations.
Whether IFNCs are the right solution is producing much debate, including strong words from the Conservative Party who are vehemently opposed to the idea.
As for the social enterprise route, nothing much has been talked about. I’ve been out talking about how The Lichfield Blog is taking steps in this area, by incorporating as a Community Interest Company (CIC). A CIC is limited company like any other but is bound by it’s entirely community-focused aims. It’s a kind of middle ground between commercial enterprise and charity and an official ‘non-for-profit’ label.
So Wyatt’s comment rings some bells with me and not just because he suggested the very route we’re taking in Lichfield. One of the main motivations for taking the decision was reading Manchester Guardian’s founder CP Scott’s values and centenary leader article. I’m sure this is at the top of every journalism student’s reading list but having never been involved in journalism until this past year I’d never seen it.
It strikes me that amongst all the talk about the state of local media plenty of people are putting forward their idea of what the future of local media is. As I said at news:rewired last week, I believe the future of local media is journalism and I feel like the only one saying it. Those principles that CP Scott presented to the world back in 1921 are still true today as ever but I fear many in this industry have lost sight of that.
While existing media struggle to cope without their massive profit margins and react by creating even bigger monoliths then, could it be that in order to save journalism we need to go down the social enterprise route and fund local media through grants and subsidies?
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Just stumbled upon your article-we are a social enterprise startup just published a green guide for women in Edinburgh before Xmas and plan to make it a regular publication within Edinburgh and Lothians-problem at the moment I am facing is the lack of grants to help fund the next few issues …there is advertising out there to help support the publication and intital response to the idea has been very positive, however given the small advertising budgets of most of the local businesses makes it a tough proposition. In principal its a good idea but the reality is that the government does not have the money or the vision required to make the radical changes required to make the media sector work better in the interests of the common man
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