![]() Their dominance - including of advertising spend - has "merely entrenched the market reach and influence of traditionally dominant newspapers and broadcasters" through their algorithms, the report said. According to Ipsos and Ofcom, 64% of the UK public use such 'online intermediaries' to access news. When it comes to the tech platforms’ role as gatekeepers to news, the research found that ten of the top 15 online platforms used by UK audiences to access news were owned by Facebook owner Meta, Google parent Alphabet and Elon Musk’s X Corp which owns X (formerly known as Twitter). Reach and National World, said the report, accounted for over half of new digital launches, most of which were 'hub' websites such as Reach’s network of Live sites which serve larger areas. The report acknowledged that while ongoing local print closures have been met by new title launches, many of these new launches concern titles that were relaunched after being previously shut down or were consolidations of smaller local editions. The study noted pointed to the particularly "rapid consolidation of the news industry" at the local and regional level.Īnalysis by Press Gazette earlier this year found that consolidation has increased sharply in the local press in the last five years. ![]() This increasingly concentrated ownership, said the report, "is worsening the collapse of media diversity and public interest journalism across the UK media". Reach and Newsquest’s share was bigger than that of the combined share of titles owned by the smallest 173 local publishers. The report found that over 71% of the UK’s 1,189 local newspapers are also owned by just six companies with the two largest, Reach and Newsquest, each accounting for a fifth of the local press market. The top publishers also accounted for the bulk of revenue as News Corp, DMG Media and Reach together brought in almost 70% of national publishing revenue among the leading names. Ofcom, Parliament and government must act to break up the dominant media companies, regulate the tech companies that profit off of UK audiences, and create new ownership and funding models to support independent public interest journalism." "We need urgent reform to end the decades of failed regulation and political inaction on concentrated media ownership. "Across our newspapers, TV channels, radio stations and online platforms, these companies hold a dangerous level of power to dictate our national conversation and influence the political agenda to favour their own interests." However, these findings show that the UK media is dominated by a tiny handful of corporate media moguls and ‘big tech’ tycoons." Their dominance of print and online news, said the report, gave the three publishers "an unrivalled position for setting the news agenda".Ĭhivers, researcher at the Media Reform Coalition, said: "A free, independent and plural media is essential to the functioning of a healthy democracy. Reach’s digital newsbrands accounted for more than a fifth of total online reach, which was only slightly less than the combined share of newsbrands in the top 50 not owned by broadcasters or major publishers.
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