BBC0001
Written evidence submitted by National World plc
The Public Accounts Committee has launched an inquiry into the BBC’s implementation of Across the UK. The Committee is accepting evidence until Monday February 5, 2024. This is the written evidence from National World plc, publisher of independent local and regional news and lifestyle websites across the UK - including the Yorkshire Post, The Scotsman, The Newsletter, and nationalworld.com.
1 Context
1.1 In October 2022, the BBC laid out plans to strengthen its local online news provision in communities across England as part of its 'Across the UK' strategy. The plans highlighted the creation of 130 additional posts across England, including more than 70 investigative journalists working across TV, radio and online.
1.2 "The plans will deliver a stronger and more distinctive local online news service for 43 different local areas in England – all available on the BBC News website and app. Our local journalism across TV, radio and online will also benefit from 11 new investigations teams based across England, delivering original journalism across our daily services. The 43 online areas include four new news services for Bradford, Wolverhampton, Sunderland and Peterborough." (Source BBC Media Centre, July 6, 2023).
1.3 Three of the four new services are in National World's circulation areas - Wolverhampton, Sunderland and Peterborough. Our digital and newspaper brands in these markets are the Wolverhampton Express and Star, the Sunderland Echo, and the Peterborough Telegraph.
2 Market impact
2.1 Senior editors of the main independent local news publishers across the UK consider the actions of the BBC to be the single biggest threat facing commercially-funded independent local journalism.
2.2 As local newspaper publishers continue the transformation to viable digital news publishers they face significant challenges from the global tech platforms and their opaque algorithms - which has driven down advertising yields and fractured the direct relationship between audience and news provider. The Digital Markets Bill and the Media Bill will assist in redressing this.
2.3 However, the BBC's 'Across the UK' strategy is a far more serious threat because it is seeking to cherry-pick local stories which drive the biggest audiences and publish them on their own advertisement-free and subscription-free sites which will, because of the consequent high user experience funded by the taxpayer, give them a wholly disproportionate ability to dominate the market. It is the digital equivalent of the BBC publishing local newspapers which carried no cover price, no advertising, and limitless paging in direct competition to commercial operators. To compound matters, there is evidence that they are recruiting local independent journalists on higher salaries, taking news leads from commercial publishers and rewriting them, and maximising the promotional strengths of the BBC brand and infrastructure. All the while, the BBC has radically reduced its prized local radio services and underfunded its core TV offering, leading to endless repeats.
2.4 The BBC's actions will significantly remove audience and the advertising revenues attached to them from commercial publishers, will continue to undermine efforts to establish quality reader-pays subscription models for local news services, and lead to a significantly poorer local news ecosystem with more jobs lost than the BBC could ever create and the removal of independent voices and community campaigns.
2.5 On December 5, 2023, editorial directors from independent publishers across the UK jointly signed an editorial comment that ran across their daily and weekly newspapers and their local websites describing the BBC, in the context of its 'Across the UK' strategy as the 'neighbour from hell.' A version also appeared as the main comment in the Daily Express, which is attached (Appendix 1).
2.6 They said: "The BBC seems to be on a mission to be the only show in town - having taken an axe to its much-loved local radio stations so it can start writing news stories online which you can already get from local newspapers which are currently battling with tech platforms like Google, Meta and Apple. Unlike Google, Meta and co, the BBC’s funding is guaranteed by the licence fee, meaning the British public is underwriting the biggest threat local journalism has ever faced. It is splashing your cash on local news websites and making it increasingly difficult for proud, independent news sites to survive in the long term. Most local reporters share their stories and videos with readers through the opaque algorithms of the giant global tech companies like Facebook and Google. As the BBC carries no advertising and is entirely free to read, its stories tend to be prioritised by the big search engines over our journalism. At the same time, the BBC uses its vast monopolistic strength to promote its content. So, it has a huge anti-competitive advantage. Editors are convinced that as they juggle the realities of the cost-of-living crisis, the BBC - immune from the same commercial pressures - is fixated on stealing their readers, their businesses, and the jobs of their journalists. It either knows what it is doing, and doesn’t care, or is ignorant of the impact it will have."
2.7 The full editorial comment is attached (Appendix 2). The signatories were:
Ian Carter, Iliffe Media editorial director
Toby Granville, Newsquest editorial development director
Gary Shipton, National World editorial director
Jeremy Spooner, News Media Association Independent Publishers Forum chair
Paul Rowland, Reach Regionals editorial director
Martin Wright, Midland News Association editor in chief
3 Anti-competitive activity in the launch communities of Peterborough, Wolverhampton and Sunderland
3.1 Although Peterborough and Wolverhampton only saw BBC launches recently in December 2023, there is already evidence of the BBC following up our content leads.
3.2 Peterborough - from the editorial director:
This was our exclusive - January 2/3, 2024
This was the BBC report later, January 3
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67872569
We covered the major pollution leak and were followed by most publishers - but our reporter had done a number of follow ups on this, chasing up the environment agency (not relying on press releases etc), including this one on January 4, 2024
A couple of days later, this appeared on the BBC website, January 6
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67902286
We ran a story about a councillor resigning, December 11, 2023
This was published later that day
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67684806
On November 23, 2023, we ran a story about the world's most flexible person being from Peterborough
Five days later, November 28:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67557205
A breaking news story we covered on December 18, 2023, that BBC covered after us
This is what the BBC published,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl6xdk5ndko
3.3 Wolverhampton - from the editorial director:
There has definitely been a substantial increase in Wolverhampton-focused content since the BBC service launched, with about six to eight articles per day not unusual.
As per the attached screenshot (Appendix 3), we have seen examples of Express & Star exclusives being published hours later by the local BBC operation (our version was behind a paywall). The BBC's version then appears above us on Google, meaning they generate a lot of search traffic on a story we did the leg work on, presumably due to the BBC's brand status, or its unique ability to provide stories for free on an ad-free platform.
Clearly the timing was hugely frustrating for us, given that it coincided with us launching our reader subscription service. While it is difficult to quantify the impact on subscriptions, there is no question that it makes our task much harder as the BBC is offering high quality editorial, in a premium, ad free environment, without any form of paywall (apart from the licence fee of course).
4 Conclusions
4.1 The BBC's Across the UK strategy as it relates to local news provision is anti-competitive and threatens the very survival of a plurality of local, professional journalistic voices.
4.2 Tax-payers' money through the licence fee is being inappropriately used to develop services which sit outside the BBC's remit. The BBC is abusing its market strength and brand positioning to undermine news services which are commercially funded through advertising and reader subscriptions while making use of the news leads provided by those commercial professionals.
4.3 The BBC should confine itself in respect of local news website to its original 12 broadcasting regions and support the commercial sector as it seeks to reinvent itself for a modern audience.
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
February 2024