Defending the producer interest

I am normally a great fan of Assembly Committee reports however a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/welsh-politics/welsh-politics-news/2009/06/17/councils-criticised-for-using-taxpayers-cash-to-produce-newspapers-91466-23895267/" target="_blanK"the one published this morning/a on the Welsh newspaper industry has taken a wrong turn up a cul-de-sac in my view.br /br /The all-party committee has attacked councils who use taxpayers money to produce their own newspapers. They say it is not an appropriate use of public funds and may undermine local commercial newspapers especially as council papers take advertising revenue off them. What nonsense.br /br /I am not surprised that newspaper editors and journlists themselves may have given evidence to the committee to this effect, they after all have an interest, but the Committee itself has a duty to take a wider view.br /br /A Council-produced newspaper can save a local authority hundreds of thousands of pounds each year in advertising revenue as they will use their own publication for job adverts and legal notices. That is consistent with the efficient and effective use of public money.br /br /It strikes me that the internet and the recession are the biggest threats to the future of local newspapers, not the activities of the local council. It is important to maintain local newspapers but the traditional business model on which they have built their success is no longer applicable. They need to rethink their approach.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8266684-6998254558600920180?l=peterblack.blogspot.com'//div