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Unite Backs Lords Report on Newspaper Industry
LONDON, July 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Unite, the UK's largest union and the leading union for newspaper and media workers, has today (Thursday) backed a report from a powerful House of Lords Committee warning against concentrating press ownership in the hands of the few. In the report, 'The Ownership of the News', the Lords Communications Committee lays out concerns that allowing newspaper ownership to be concentrated in a small number of publishing companies could damage news "diversity", stating: "The consolidation of ownership in the media that has taken place over the last years has added to the risk of disproportionate influence being exercised by a small number of companies and owners." Backing the report's conclusions, National Officer Steve Sibbald said: "We haven't changed our view in the last 50 years - there's too much concentration in the market." Sibbald said Unite was not only concerned about the concentration of ownership of the publishers of national and regional press, but is also very concerned about concentration in the newspaper contract printing industry, warning: "News International is likely to completely dominate newspaper contract printing in the future. "There is now a very real possibility in the future that contract printing of national newspapers will be done by just one company, News International, who will then control the production of our national press." Johnston Press, Newsquest, Northcliffe and Trinity Mirror control 70% of local and regional press in terms of overall circulation, while Rupert Murdoch's News International has a 35% slice of national newspaper circulation.
