The news that media companies are showing a keen interest in acquiring licences to run local TV services in 21 towns and cities across the UK could not come at a more significant moment for the PR industry.Consider that in 2011, more than 30 weekly papers shut and several well established dailies became telescoped into weekly editions – the Exeter Express and Echo and the Liverpool Post among them.That trend continues relentlessly. Regional publishers which once regarded their provincial titles as classified advertising cash cows continue to retrench and amalgamate (Johnston Press has just announced it is cutting a further three weekly editors as I write this). Reporters work for ever increasing numbers of titles now often subbed in remote ‘hubs’ by editors who, however well meaning, may have little knowledge of the local issues involved.The result is that the news ecology is now wildly out of kilter. As regional news groups progressively withdraw from local reporting, there are fewer journalists out there gathering news at the coal face. Television and radio – traditionally heavily reliant upon local papers for story leads - have fewer items to lift. News agencies based in provincial big cities – whose typical role is to do much of the leg work for London-based national newspapers – remain one of the few newsgathering operations with a regional presence.So it is an intriguing development that major companies are bidding to work in the troubled world of local media. These are serious players with names like ITN, Press Association, the Evening Standard and STV throwing their hats in the ring.The pill is sugared by the fact the Government will fund some of the infrastructure costs of setting these stations up (via the licence fee), but these commercial groups are interested because they see a return on their investment through local advertising. The key issue for local Government is whether a new network of local TV operators will lead to a meaningful increase in grass roots newsgathering. The Evening Standard has already said it will use its 120 journalists to form the basis of a bid. But will the areas of the country where regional print journalism has effectively withered see an influx of local TV journalists digging up local scoops?I hope that local television does create a meaningful platform for councils to speak to local people. While we are witnessing a seismic shift in how people consume media, the fact is that council communicators have the eternal task of explaining what their councils are doing and why. If local broadcasting can provide the medium, we’ll provide the message.
