Local media "well-placed to come through the advertising recession" - Michael Pelosi

Northcliffe Media group managing director Michael Pelosi has said that the regional newspaper industry is in a good position to see out the economic downturn.

In The Newspaper Society's Annual Review, the outgoing president said: "Our industry is living through the most challenging economic times of the last 50 years and our response – both collectively and individually – will shape the future of UK regional and local media.

"We are well-placed to come through the advertising recession and continue our evolution into successful multimedia businesses.

"The local media sector today reaches greater audiences than ever across print, online and broadcast platforms and we are growing our digital advertising revenues. As well as reaching 40 million readers a week in print, 24 million users a month access local newspaper websites. The challenge facing all media is how to monetise these growing online audiences."

Michael also made the case for relaxing rules over local media ownership and called on the government to tighten the controls on public-funded competition.

He said: "It is clear we need greater flexibility over newspaper mergers, acquisitions and cross-media controls as we continue our transition into a strong and effective multimedia sector delivering local news and information to communities through whichever channel people choose.

"Local media markets are highly competitive with wide choice available to advertisers in print and online. The industry has always welcomed fair competition but will resist publicly funded competition, such as the BBC or local authority publications and websites, which competes head to head with independent local media for audiences and revenues. Rather than encouraging this activity, the government must rein in local councils and expansionist state broadcasters from competing aggressively with local newspapers, distorting the local market and causing real damage to local businesses.

"I have a total belief in the future of independent local newspapers as the backbone of the UK media industry offering the only source of local investigative journalism and fulfilling a vital local democratic role not matched by the many competitors for local audiences and advertising."

Michael hands over presidency of The Newspaper Society to Iliffe News & Media's David Fordham on July 1.

The read the full NS Annual Review click here.