Tuesday 18th January: Will scrapping the license fee benefit the rest of the media world?

January 18, 2022

Good morning! Monday's newsletter is brought to you by Christopher.

In yesterday's newsletter Peter spoke about the good the BBC does, from lending the UK its status as a 'soft superpower' to the benefits to the public in an era of digital paywalls. But, as we always say on the podcasts, the BBC is such an outlier in terms of media organisations, and so massive in scope and scale that it has a huge impact on other news publishers. So today we're going to take a look at various ways the abolition of the license fee can affect those other players.

For FIPP, Ashley Norris notes that making it ad-based would likely have a negative impact on currently ad-supported publishers: "There is clearly not enough advertising revenue to fund the corporation in any meaningful way. It would have to be part of a series of revenue streams and even then it would undermine what over the years many have seen as a core feature of the corporation".

For Press Gazette Bron Maher reports that the NMA argues that the BBC as it is poses a threat to local news provision. Its chief executive said "the BBC is directly threatening the sustainability of independent local journalism with plans to be ever more local". As with everything, the scrapping of the license fee would have unintended consequences, which will be mixed in terms of impact. (But don't scrap it, Dorries, seriously what are you thinking)

Speaking of the Beeb, Alex Murray from the BBC envisions a better way in which journalists can work with the public. This line in particular stood out to me: "If we expect audiences to trust in the stories they engage with, then we must make sure they can trust our processes for gathering and telling them."

Fresh off its latest attention-seeking 'Person of the Year' cover, Time is reportedly eying 30% revenue growth this year. Its owner Marc Benioff tells Axios' Dan Primark about internal restructuring and new editorial focuses at a magazine that, for all its faults, remains iconic.

I still think The Athletic's strategy and sale to the NYT is just shy of shenanigans. Scooping up vast numbers of subscribers at a loss, then flogging yourself to an organisation desperate for sub numbers... it doesn't seem sustainable. And yet - as CNBC reports, The Athletic had other offers until the NYT boosted its bid by 10%.

This week's podcast:

In this special podumentary episode of Media Voices, Esther talks to four local news start-ups: Borderless, Santa Cruz Local, the San Jose Spotlight, and The Mendocino Voice. They discuss what drove them to start their publication, what business models they’re choosing to use, and some of the challenges they’ve faced launching a media business.

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