NS: 'Drop all local press cross ownership rules'

The Newspaper Society has reacted to yesterday's announcement by new Culture and Media secretary Jeremy Hunt that Ofcom is to review local press cross-media ownership rules by calling for them all to be dropped.
NS communications director Lynne Anderson said today: “The NS has long campaigned for the liberation of cross media ownership rules at a local level. We believe that all local cross-media ownership rules, including the media public interest test, should be removed completely."
She added: “Confirmation that the Government will not be going ahead with independently funded news consortia pilots for regional TV news will be a disappointment for a number of regional newspaper groups. Trinity Mirror has already commented that local city TV is not regarded as a commercially viable proposition.”