The Newspaper Society reports: Eight editors appeared before the inquiry yesterday (Wednesday) and gave evidence about the editorial practices of regional press to the panel. At the end of the session, Lord Leveson said it had highlighted “the important value of regional journalism.”
Spencer Feeney, editor of the South Wales Evening Post, urged Lord Leveson not to replace the PCC with anything more expensive. He said: “The local press is in a fragile financial state. Please don't make any recommendations ... to exacerbate that,” Media Guardian reported.
Mr Feeney highlighted the financial pressures on the industry and cited the case of the Welsh Leveson the Welsh Assembly considering removing the obligation for councils to publish traffic order announcements in the regional papers. If that goes through it will mean the loss of £1m a year in revenue, Mr Feeney said.
John McLellan, editor of The Scotsman, said the uptake of tablet reading on iPads and other devices could be an opportunity for regional papers. "The new way of reading on tablets or phones is that people are relearning they have to pay for these services," he said.
Maria McGeoghan, editor of the Manchester Evening News, highlighted the editorial controls in place at the newspaper and said that journalists at the papers take the PCC very seriously.
“To have an adjudication against you is a badge of shame. If we have a constant stream of corrections and apologies on something that breaks the PCC code, that breaks that contract of trust [with the readers],” she said.
She said two sources for a story in the paper were a minimum requirement.
But, she added, there had been a backlash against newspapers following the phone-hacking scandal. “I am very concerned that [they think] we are all using the same methods and doing something shady.”
Nigel Pickover said the newspaper had a good relationship with local police and cited an example of working well together last summer when there was a threat that rioting would break out in Ipswich.
Regional editors to give evidence yesterday were: Mike Gilson, Belfast Telegraph; Jonathan Russell, The Herald; Maria McGeoghan, Manchester Evening News; Peter Charlton, Yorkshire Post; Nigel Pickover, Ipswich Evening Star; Noel Doran, Irish News; John McLellan, The Scotsman; Spencer Feeney, South Wales Evening Post.
At the end of the session Lord Leveson said: “I think I've said it to you or maybe I said it to the another group, the presence of editors from outside the bubble that represents Fleet Street is, I think extremely important to make the point that you have each in turn tried to make about the differences, about the value of your work and the important value of regional journalism.”
