Labour vow to help local newspapers if they win power
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed a Labour government would support local newspapers in the face of competition from tech platforms like Google and Facebook.
The opposition leader spoke to the Reading Chronicle during a visit to Berkshire.
Journalists drew Sir Keir’s attention to the fact the Chronicle reaches more people than ever before — some 400,000 across print and online every month — yet struggles to compete with Google, Instagram and Meta as they take a lion’s share of advertising revenue which used to be spend with publishers producing trusted local news.
Speaking to the editor of the Reading Chronicle on a visit to Tilehurst, Sir Keir Starmer said: “I think Local newspapers are really important. I think that Holding local representatives to account matters and I think local communities want to see their local areas [represented].
“I think that in an age when people don’t trust politics, there’s a huge trust in your local paper. So we need to work with Google and others.
“We’ve got support our local papers. I’m really worried that unless we talk to Google and others and better arrangement that we will lose even more of these vital outfits.”
