Local and provincial newspapers have been campaigning hard to stop a BBC proposal to establish a series of local news websites which would also carry video content. The corporation had advertised for six video journalists for each of its six Scottish regions. These were to have been recruited progressively over a five year period and would have added to the career opportunities available for Scottish NUJ members.

The print media were concerned that the arrival of such services would hit their circulation and advertising. This was supported by a study from Ofcom showing that annual revenues at existing commercial providers would fall by up to 4% if the planned services were established.

The BBC Trust has now stopped the plans, saying – and the defence for this statement would be interesting to hear – that the proposal did not meet its criteria for offering value to the public. Instead it directed the corporation to work on developing its existing regional services – which is presumably what it thought it was doing.

Anyway – the proof of the pudding was that this development has been made known instantly on the BBC website, while today’s Herald is stuck with an already redundant report on the newspaper owning lobby’s objections to the proposal.

While the press and local radio welcome the decision, the National Union of Journlists (NUJ) has regretted it, describing it as ‘a missed opportunity to enhance local media’. The NUJ sees that: ‘Local papers are closing and job cuts mean thousands of journalists don’t have the time to do their jobs properly anymore’.

The NUJ feels that with ITV cutting back on its regional and local news, the BBC proposal offered an opportunity for a modest development of local news provision. It accused local media owners of boosting profits through job cuts and of opposing the BBC plan from sheer protectionism.

The BBC had, in fact, during the past week, offered provincial and local newspapers a partnership in the planned development. This was a real opportunity to benefit from the BBC’s unparallelled expertise in online news presentation and management.

Going for the ostrich option of objection and lacking the will to invest and embrace change has led to a complaining lobby forcing the weak BBC Trust to reject the proposed development. This overall outcome now pretty well ensures that newspaper businesses will go to the wall sooner rather than later. Look at their websites and despair.

The internet is the only investable place to be. The newspapers could have had their hands held by the best possible guides to this world as they took their first real steps into it. They deserve what they’ve now bought.

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