Ms James comes from a swing seat in Stourbridge where the local council has a 50-50 split of Labour and Conservative councillors, so it has natural accountability with one side casting a critical eye over the other. Move next door to Sandwell and it’s a completely different story, as all 72 councillors serving the authority are from the Labour Party. And that’s where the local press come in and do vital work in ensuring the democracy is upheld. The government's independent Cairncross Review has looked into how high quality journalism is maintained, in an era where most are looking at clickbait. The introduction of centrally-funded local democracy reporters has been designed to help maintain that critical eye, but Ms James fears that the moves may not have happened in time. “It’s so important, especially in the areas of the country where it is so safe for one party or the other,” Ms James added. “In my constituency, one of the nearby councils has had a 90 per cent Labour council for decades and there are those in other parts of the country that are the other way around. “Either way, it’s a bad thing for democracy, because nobody is holding them to account.” “We are coming at the problem from a number of perspectives. In terms of the protection of publishers, on and offline, we have set up the Cairncross Review. “That will lead to support for more quality content and the BBC democracy reporting service is helping too. “There was also a recommendation to get the competition and market authority to look into the digital advertising market, to get a fairer share of the rewards dealt out to publishers. “My hope is that we can act in time, because the erosion of the traditional publishing industry and local news reporting and local papers is carrying on apace. “And it is a challenge to keep up with these developments, and that is my one worry that by the time we get it right it may be too late.” Here at Punchline we are bucking the trend of most regional publications because we are produced in Gloucestershire for Gloucestershire businesses by Gloucestershire-based journalists.
Our team of 10 staff have in their number reporters with decades of press and media experience between them. We have invested in our staff because it is the only way to get the best product to our readers. We pride ourselves on our informative and entertaining content – and never resorting to clickbait to meet a target set by a finance man at a national head office. Unfortunately, we are the exception l
July 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com | 13
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