[cma-l] UKRD wants public notice law change

[Alan Coote]

We were only talking about this internally last week.

 

We are lead to believe that advertising costs in the local papers are
inflated due to there being no competition. 

 

Surely a very significant change to the sector. I suspect an audited
listenership would be required.

 

Alan  

 

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Martin Steers
Sent: 28 June 2011 1:30 PM
To: CMA Discussion List List
Subject: [cma-l] UKRD wants public notice law change

 

Certainly something to think about and discuss.. maybe consider action on
your own (station and individual) or a CMA thing? This could be of huge
benefit to community stations and the communities they serve.

 

http://radiotoday.co.uk/2011/06/ukrd-wants-public-notice-law-change/?utm_sou
rce=feedburner
<http://radiotoday.co.uk/2011/06/ukrd-wants-public-notice-law-change/?utm_so
urce=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+radiotoday+%28Radio+Tod
ay+-+News%29>
&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+radiotoday+%28Radio+Today+-+News%29

 

 

Local radio operator UKRD is calling for ministers to change the law which
means public notices about things like road closures and planning
applications have to be carried only in local newspapers.

The group’s Chief Executive, William Rogers, told RadioToday.co.uk the
current legislation was ‘out-dated and very old fashioned’.

Along with the Managing Directors of UKRD’s portfolio of stations – which
includes Pirate FM, Eagle Radio, Minster and 2BR – William is campaigning to
open up the use of all media for public notices so that councils and
government departments can choose the marketing solution most appropriate to
get their information across.

William told us: “It is a reality in today’s world, that circulation of
local newspapers has been falling and their effectiveness to deliver the
messages various public bodies want to get across to communities they serve,
has diminished as a result. Whilst they still provide strong local editorial
content and are a valuable resource, it is clearly ridiculous that public
bodies are not able to make a judgement about how best to deliver their
messages to local communities and are restricted by law from making that
choice.”

He added that he would like to see a change in the current law, so that web,
local radio and local newspapers could all be considered. “This may seem
like a small change but there is no question that local radio, along with
other media, has been denied the opportunity to play a role in this area for
far too long and should now be allowed to participate along with local
newspapers and others,” said Rogers.

We’re told UKRD’s managers around the country are lobbying local MPs through
letters and meetings, setting out the case for change and arguing that
public sector organisations should be given ‘the widest choice to ensure
effective and cost efficient delivery of their notices into local
communities’.

Only
<http://www.lgcomms.org.uk/blog/lgcomms-newspaper?blog=experts-call-for-200m
-saving-on-public-notices> last month an organisation representing
communications departments from local councils wrote to the Department for
Communities and Local Government calling for a change to allow notices to be
placed on their own websites to save £200m over five years in press
advertising costs.

Previously, organisations like the Newspaper Society have
<http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/2/jul/09/ns-raises-local-government-advertis
ing-concerns> called for the restrictions to stay in place to support the
local press industry. Many local councils began publishing their own weekly
free newspapers as a way of reducing the amount spent on press advertising.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20110628/10f82935/attachment.html>