Last week I wrote to the Secretary of State at the Department for Culture Media and Sport highlighting that lots of local newspapers across the country are reliant on advertising for funding.
The Governments steps to help business over the last few weeks have been really welcome, but in the cases of some organisations – like local newspapers – furloughing journalists may mean that all news output stops from that newspaper.
I hope this is something government have considered, and I’d like to encourage those advertisers that can afford it to continue backing their local papers.
We need trusted news sources to combat disinformation now more than ever, it is absolutely essential that local media continues to remain viable and operational to hold us all to account.
Yesterday the national newspapers came together and published an open letter to all advertisers, asking them to #BackDontBlock, and I really hope advertisers take heed of this campaign and extend it to local media too.
I hope the government has been preparing for this and that it doesn’t allow important local institutions to go under. I look forward to hearing from the Secretary of State soon.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 