Chris Morley, Newsquest NUJ co-ordinator, quoted by Press Gazette, on the proposed takeover by Newsquest of the CN newspaper group in Cumbria: “The rate of takeover of independent newspaper operators is speeding up with apparently just two big players in the market – Trinity Mirror and Newsquest. With Johnston Press paralysed by its debts, the industry seems to be moving to a duopoly of giant owners which is incredibly dangerous for diversity, given the ruthless substitution of unique content for shared material, and plurality of the media. There is too little choice for readers and too few opportunities for journalists."
Alice Pickthall, media analyst at Enders, quoted by the Guardian: “In order to survive, consolidation is key to compete with the online players and retain some share of digital advertising. As the digital market grows, publishers aren’t seeing a proportionate amount of share gain. Facebook has had an especially big impact on the local market. If a local business is offered a lovely shiny [presence] on Facebook who wouldn’t use it? The largest [traditional] players in the market will win, they will continue to pick up smaller publishers to maintain scale in a shrinking market.”
Culture secretary Matt Hancock in the Commons announcing part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry into the behaviour of the press will not go ahead, as reported by the Guardian: "We do not believe that this costly and time consuming public inquiry is the right way forward... It’s clear that we’ve seen significant progress, from publications, from the police and from the new regulator. The world has changed since the Leveson inquiry was established in 2011. Since then we have seen seismic changes to the media landscape.”
Daily Mail after uncovering a racist pamphlet published in the 1960s by Max Mosley, the privacy campaigner and supporter of press regulator Impress: "The discovery of the Mosley pamphlet – arguably one of the most racist official leaflets ever published in a modern British parliamentary election – raises the question of whether Mr Mosley committed perjury, which carries a prison sentence of up to seven years, and whether the trial might have had a different outcome if the judge had known of its existence."
The Times [£] in a leader on Max Mosley and Impress: "To have a supposedly independent press regulator backed by the state was always a contradiction in terms. For it to be dependent on funds handed down by a supporter of Hitler to a motor-racing tycoon with a personal grudge against certain newspapers did not resolve this contradiction. A press regulator cannot credibly be anti-press any more than Ofsted could be anti-school. That is why Impress’s authority is not recognised by a single significant national news outlet. It is less a regulator than a privacy campaign group in disguise, kept afloat by someone whose chief motivation appears to be to prevent the press investigating his own past. It should be wound up, saving Mr Mosley large sums and leaving the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) to regulate the press."
NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, as reported by CNN: "Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it. Now I'm not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you and many in the legacy media."
Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson @JayMitchinson on Twitter: "Dear Yorkshire: the smirk on the face of @jeremycorbyn hides a pernicious vendetta which could see politicians force newspapers like The Yorkshire Post under State control. The 'change' he speaks about is the death of democracy using data protection laws. #freethepress"
Derby North MP Chris Williamson on PolitcsHome: "How free is our media when a handful of proprietors control 71 per cent of the national newspaper market? Now the prospect for some in the commentariat might be scary, but calling for robust and independent media regulation, while pointing out the power that rich men have over information, sounds like common sense to me. In any case, thanks to social media, the circulation of the right-wing press is already falling as low as the gutter in which its editors minds reside. So like it or not, change is definitely on its way."
Society of Editors executive director Ian Murray in a statement on Jeremy Corbyn's warning to right-wing media owners that 'change is coming': “The Society of Editors does not align itself with any political party nor stance, however we do stand for a free press, a self-regulated press, and we are concerned that in his statement Mr Corbyn appears to be suggesting Labour have plans to change the media landscape in the UK. If that is the case then we would ask him to clarify what those proposed changes are and to urge him to resist any temptation to attempt to silence voices that may be opposed to his point of view through press restrictions.”
The Telegraph in a celebration of cartoonist Matt Pritchard's 30 years with the paper: "Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, was also invited to join the anniversary celebrations. His team politely declined, saying none of the Matt cartoons they had seen about Mr Corbyn were funny."
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