'Government will act to help local press'

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has issued the clearest indication yet that the government is planning action to help the regional press, Press Gazette claims today.
It says Burnham spoke exclusively to the magazine following the local media summit held yesterday.
Burnham told Press Gazette: "What was good about today was it really brought people together and there was a lot of shared analysis and agreement about the way forward."
He added: "Most MPs have got an incredibly good grip on a) how important their local paper is to local life and b) how well-resourced it is at any given time, because we are constantly working with them.
"So unlike other industries, MPs have a very close understanding of both the importance and the strength of the local media industry. I think that goes for MPs of all colours. People see the urgency."
For longer term solutions to both the crisis in local newspapers and broadcasting, Burnham indicated that will have to wait for the publication of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report this summer.
But he said: "There are potentially short-term measures that can be taken fairly quickly that might provide some immediate respite and help to local papers - possibly this year or next."
He added: "In terms of concrete steps that could be taken, there's the issue around council-run papers, there's the issue that was raised today around government advertising spend and to what extent government can prioritise local papers in that there's a justifiable public benefit that comes from the continuation of local papers.
"There's obviously issues around cross-media ownership rules that are being considered in the context of the Digital Britain report and the Office of Fair Trading have been looking at those issues."
"While I can't prejudge the Queen's Speech, clearly the final Digital Britain report will have recommendations possibly for legislation that the government will want to get on with pretty quickly because the prime minister has identified the digital economy as a key part of the new economy coming out of the difficult times we're in.
"This clearly is absolutely at the top of the government's agenda."