Owen Meredith: Pubs and papers are pillars of local life that deserve our support

By News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith

Kevin Foster’s article on public notice advertising is well wide of the mark – both on the important reasons for keeping public notices in local news media, and the huge audiences the sector now commands.

Local media reaches 42 million people every month in print and digital – a massive audience by any measure. The sector is also highly trusted – a new study published last month revealed that trust in local media has grown significantly over the past year. Eighty per cent of UK adults now say they trust the news and information they see in their local media, up from 73 per cent in 2024, according to a nationally representative OnePoll survey.

And Ofcom’s latest report on news consumption in the UK, published in July this year, also found a notable improvement in the public perception of print newspapers, with ratings for trust, accuracy, and impartiality increasing from 60 per cent in 2018 to 70 per cent in 2025.

These trends are unsurprising when you consider the wider context of tech platforms integrating AI technology into their search products at breakneck speed – massively increasing the prominence of factually incorrect and misleading information online, in place of trusted sources such as news brands.

The statutory requirement for public notices to appear in local newspapers ensures that information of democratic import appears – consistently – in an environment of highly trusted local journalism, rather than tucked away on a council website where no-one will see them.

Often, the content of public notices is covered editorially by local journalists as well as advertised, ensuring even deeper, richer public debate about important local issues. This is local democracy at work and removing public notices from local papers would weaken it irreparably.

The local news sector has recognised that print circulations have declined and acted quickly to build and launch the Public Notice Portal with funding from the Google News Initiative. The PNP is a digital one stop shop for all the public notices published in local papers developed which harnesses local news media’s huge online audiences.

There also remains a sizeable cohort of citizens with low levels of digital literacy who rely on offline platforms to access information. A House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee report on digital exclusion in 2023 warned that around 10.2 million adults (20 per cent) are unable to complete all eight of the foundation tasks needed to set someone up for using the online world.

Removing public notices from local papers would, at a stroke, cut off this cohort – often the older, isolated and more vulnerable members of society – from local democratic engagement.

Kevin’s piece sadly fails to recognise any of this, instead he backs a suggestion by the Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves, made in a newspaper interview, that alcohol licensing notices – a type of public notice – should be removed from local papers as part of wider reform of the licensing regime.

Such a move would undoubtedly risk shutting local people out of decisions that affect their daily lives. Alcohol licensing notices give residents the chance to have their say on new venues opening up, changes to licensing hours, or proposed developments that may impact local amenities. Taking that away strips power from communities by shrouding them in secrecy, quietly eroding accountability in local decision-making.

And for what? A minor administrative tweak dressed up as a cost-saving measure, but which in truth will deliver negligible savings while inflicting disproportionate damage. Made up mainly of representatives from the hospitality sector and night-time industries, the Licensing Taskforce which made the recommendation was not equipped with the right expertise to foresee and avoid these dangers.

The cost of a pint has been driven up by the Chancellor’s tax changes, hitting pubs and licensed venues with higher business rates and increased wage bills. The  Licensing Taskforce makes many sensible recommendations, the proposal to remove the public’s right to know is not one of them.

Pubs and papers go hand in hand. They are community hubs, rooted in place, fostering connection, and acting as a glue that binds neighbourhoods together. Both have suffered heavily in recent years – from the pandemic, changing consumer habits, and rising costs – but both have also shown remarkable grit and innovation in rising to the challenge. By engaging with local communities, both can prosper and flourish together.

Fortunately, following the Chancellor’s comments, the Opposition front bench was quick off the mark to condemn the plans. Shadow Local Government Secretary Sir James Cleverly was absolutely right to warn that removing alcohol licensing notices from local papers would damage local democracy. Sir James’ intervention is welcome as we have a battle on our hands to protect local democracy from being irreparably eroded by this government.

At the NMA, we are also concerned about a provision in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to remove from local papers public notices concerned with changes to local authority governance arrangements.

As it embarks upon the most dramatic reform of local government in 50 years, this would result in far-reaching changes happening in secret, utterly at odds with the principles of open local democratic engagement which the government purports to champion. I hope MPs will make their views known about this attack on local democracy when the Bill returns to the Commons later this month.

The government’s misguided proposals to remove public notices from local papers amount to a highly damaging attack on the public right to know, which would shroud local communities in secrecy. For the sake of our local communities, Ministers must change course.