WalesOnline prides itself on investigative, campaigning and public interest journalism. We hold the Welsh and UK governments to account, our work is raised in the Senedd and House of Commons, and the then-chancellor abruptly ended an interview because he didn't like our questions.
We invest in trained journalists who seek to challenge authority and hold power to account on your behalf, bringing you the news that matters when, where and how you want it. WalesOnline and our sister title, North Wales Live, alone employ more than 50 journalists to cover our governments, courts, sports teams and communities. 8.5 million people a month read them online and their work also covers print titles like the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, South Wales Evening Post, Daily Post and several weekly papers.
But today we're asking our readers to help us tackle an emerging threat to what we do so well. You may already be aware of the public outcry surrounding the BBC’s controversial ‘Across the UK’ plans, which seek to transform the corporation’s provision of local news by inflicting swingeing cuts on the corporation’s local radio services and diverting its resources into beefing up the BBC’s online local news services.
Why does this matter?
Firstly, it's no exaggeration to say that some local news titles in the UK may be forced to close if these plans happen, leading to job losses and the BBC becoming the lone voice in some local communities, seriously damaging the local journalism ecosystem. Readers – and the commensurate advertising revenues which we use to pay our local journalists – will be sucked away from local websites to the BBC’s.
That pressure on our resources, at a time when we are grappling with a host of other challenges, could cause some local titles to call it a day. This would be a disaster for the communities affected. These local and regional titles use their resources to do things that simply wouldn’t happen without us. Like what? Well, like the freedom to campaign on behalf of communities and openly call out those seeking to undermine them, as when we listed the 29 things that an inquiry into how the Welsh Government handled the pandemic must look into and set out how Wales missed out on £5bn of HS2 public money. These are freedoms denied to the BBC because of its impartiality requirements.
On a local level, our exclusive reporting includes the man whose family died of Covid after reading misinformation, the exposing of conditions at a care home forcing out its residents and the realities of life for people forced to live on the streets or living with sexual abuse. We cover every minute of several high-profile murder trials, often overturning reporting restrictions on those responsible. And in sport, our reputation for sports interviews is unrivalled, detailing the Welsh men’s rugby captain’s fight for his career and a bare-knuckle boxer’s brutal reality. We drove the agenda on big issues like poor crowds and alcohol in rugby, and the mass cull of players from professional clubs and its real-life impact.
We explore real issues affecting readers, like villages where second homeowners force out Welsh-speaking locals, and the reality of a struggling NHS told through a son whose mother died waiting for an ambulance and a woman who spent six days in an A&E chair. We explore life for people in low-income communities faced with rising costs and benefit cuts, and the reality of children raised in poverty in the shadow of Wales’ greatest wealth. Communities rely on our live reporting, as when we were in a fuel protester’s lorry as they ground the M4 to a halt. Very little of this reporting would have happened without WalesOnline.
While the BBC's plans to cut local radio provision are largely in England at the moment, they are relevant to us all. Commercial news publishers own websites across the whole of the UK and if some websites are no longer viable, all are threatened.
Furthermore, there is no need for the BBC to do this. The commercial local news sector already serves communities across the length and breadth of the UK. There is no democratic deficit for the corporation to step in and fill. Our audiences are huge – 40 million people (73 per cent of the British population aged 15+) now read local news media in print or digital every month.
As you will be aware, the licence fee affords the BBC a unique and highly privileged position in the journalism ecosystem. The licence fee enables the BBC to do things the commercial sector can’t, such as running websites with no advertising or paywalls on them.
You may understandably ask why more local news with fewer adverts is a problem. But it’s not that simple. The BBC’s decision to aggressively focus on online content puts it head-to-head with the long-established media organisations which local communities have long since come to rely on. These local media publishers have for decades been fighting falling newspaper sales and US tech giants like Meta and Google hoovering up the vast majority of advertising revenue.
The commercial local journalism sector does not shy away from fair competition, we welcome it. Fair competition drives innovation and quality in many different sectors. But, because of the might of the licence fee, the ‘Across the UK' plans represent precisely the opposite of fair competition.
The guardrails enshrined in a Royal Charter which are supposed to prevent the BBC misusing its power in this way have failed and there is now the real risk that, unless they are halted, these plans could irrevocably damage local journalism in the UK.
So, together with other commercial news publishers across the UK, WalesOnline is today urging readers to contact their local MP and ask them to write to the government about this issue. You can make a real difference. Your MP can express concern about the impact of the BBC's 'Across the UK' plans and ask the government what steps it is going to take to get the BBC to change course.
The local news sector believes in and values the contribution the BBC and its journalists make to our vibrant news ecosystem. But there is a real risk that the 'Across the UK' plans could wreak untold damage on it and we can't allow that to happen. With your help we can get the BBC to be a better neighbour to local commercial titles, ensuring a vibrant and diverse local news sector for many years to come.
In response to the publication of this article, the BBC issued a statement saying: “The BBC has worked constructively with local media publishers for years and already funds 165 reporter posts across the UK that supply commercial publishers with stories focused on the work of local authorities. Since the scheme launched, it has produced more than 340,000 original stories for in excess of 1,100 different news outlets.
“The BBC’s plans to strengthen its local online news coverage in England over the coming months will offer greater value to millions of licence-fee payers. Our regulator Ofcom has already scrutinised these plans and concluded that they do not expect them to significantly impact commercial media outlets.”
