The LGA has rejected complaints that council newspapers are forcing local media out of business. The chief executive of Johnston Press, Britain's third-largest newspaper group, accused councils of competing unfairly with local newspapers by selling advertising in their residents' publications. Mr John Fry said: ‘There are council-funded newspapers cropping up all over the place, and they are fat local newspapers which put pressure on commercial titles. ‘They are appearing in Hammersmith, there's one in Hackney, in Brent – all over the place. If we look at it on a commercial level, it is damaging, but I also have to wonder what these council-run newspapers do for democracy if they put the only independent voices out of business.' He called on the Government to ensure public notices and recruitment adverts were placed with local newspapers, since they were ‘the best platform for them', and also challenged regulator Ofcom to overhaul competition rules. His comments coincided with the announcement that Johnston is to sell its Irish titles to help service debts of £465m. With its share price stuck at around 7.5p after being struck from the FTSE in December, even the National Union of Journalists has called the group the ‘newspaper equivalent of HBOS and Northern Rock'. The Society of Editors executive director, Bob Satchwell, said Mr Fry was right to highlight the challenge posed by council-backed newspapers. ‘Local government should be discouraged from intervening in a delicate marketplace,' he said. But the Local Government Association defended local authority publications. A spokesman told The MJ: ‘Residents increasingly want to know how their council is delivering services and local newspapers won't tell them. Statutory notices should be publicised in an efficient way and not used as a financial crutch. Democracy is not necessarily best served by multi-million pound companies.'
