A journalism professor from Brighton has given evidence to MPs about new rules intended to keep “town hall Pravdas” in check.
Roy Greenslade told a House of Commons select committee that one of the more frequent council publications “represents the thin end of the wedge”.
Professor Greenslade, who lives in Kemp Town and teaches at City University in London, was talking about a publication called East End Life to the Communities and Local Government Committee.
He said: “If we allow East End Life to stand and do what it does, it will be emulated elsewhere.
“You have to see East End Life as a template.”
The new rules will affect the Brighton and Hove City Council publication City News.
At the moment it is published almost every month but when the new rules come into force early next year City News will become quarterly.
The rules – being introduced by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government – have a number of aims.
Unfair competition
They are intended to cut publicity costs, encourage council publications to be impartial rather than “town hall Pravdas” and prevent unfair competition with newspapers especially for private sector advertising.
Professor Greenslade was asked whether it was fair to blame the ills of the local newspaper industry on the rise of council publications.
He said: “To be absolutely frank about it, there is no data.”
He cited two examples of specific concern to newspaper publishers in commercial terms but he also criticised another – Greenwich Time – for its uncritical coverage of the council.
He recognised that many more publications did not cause specific concern at the moment.
Professor Greenslade, who writes a media blog for The Guardian, said: “Greenwich Time has a record of being, to use the minister’s own phrase, a town hall Pravda in the sense that it does not cover, fairly and honestly, local matters.
“We do not want to see council publications that take a single point of view.
“And there are odd examples of that in some of the papers in London, where they quite definitely deserve the Pravda nickname, but spin is always a subjective matter.”
Sledgehammer
Professor Greenslade was also concerned that the rule changes – to the Code of Practice on Local Authority Publicity – were like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Sticking with Professor Greenslade’s analogy, Brighton and Hove City Council is one of the nuts.
It is going to cut the amount that it spends on City News with the change to a less frequesnt publishing schedule.
The budget was £125,000 a year until this year.
In the current year – to the end of March 2011 – the cost is expected to be less than £100,000.
And next year the budget for City News is less than £50,000.
The figures do not include staffing costs as the employees who produce the magazine also carry out other work on behalf of the council.
Another Brighton-based media commentator Greg Hadfield – a former Fleet Street journalist and internet entrepreneur – has also written about the proposed changes. His criticisms can be read here.
He calls for better communication from councils rather than government-imposed restrictions.
Determinedly unglossy
Describing City News, he said: “It’s a modestly attractive – but determinedly unglossy – publication.
“Gobbets of information about council initiatives are mixed in with longer personality-led articles.
“It has no obvious paid-for advertising – although there is a full page of material related to fundraising by a local hospice.
“It couldn’t be mistaken for a newspaper.
“It couldn’t seriously be regarded as propaganda, in the proper sense of the word.
“Nor does it appear particularly extravagant in its production values.”
A council employee said: “We can’t be compared with East End Life or the relatively few publications like it and there is no desire here to compete commercially with traditional media.
“My colleagues are more interested in using the internet and social media to engage with council tax payers cheaply, directly and effectively.
“We accept that not everyone is online and City News is an economic way of ensuring most people have a chance to learn what the council is doing.
“I don’t think the council treats it as a way of disseminating propaganda but, of course, it won’t be critical of council policy either. That’s the job of papers like The Argus or journalists at the BBC.
“The council is adapting to the revised code of practice and trying to save money at a time when the whole public sector is trying to make savings but we still have to communicate and City News is a good vehicle for that.”
I would just be happy of the council web site told me the day my rubbish and recycling was going to be collected and that the council then did as it said it would. Some hope in Brighton!
anonymous council employee says: “My colleagues are more interested in using the internet and social media to engage with council tax payers cheaply, directly and effectively.”
so TRO’s never get put on the internet, even though licensing and planning applications are….
why?
Does the newspaper yet exist that has no political bias? Above all, these “town hall Pravda’s” are produced to counter perceived censorship/political bias.
Looking at what and who gets what profile in the Argus tells you what its affiliation is. Tories would get an inch on page 25 for material Labour would get 1/3 page with big photo on page 5 to promote. Greens get sympathetic treatment and the LibDems are nearly invisible.
To get publicity politicians from all parties resort to overt displays of football interest to get publicity – which is promptly and uncritically reported.
Every town and burgh has its media bias to deal with – hence “town hall Pravda’s” to try to control the news agenda.