Aid urged for press

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34105, 18 March 1976, Page 17

Aid urged for press

(N.Z. Press Assn —Copyright) LONDON, March 17.

Britain’s national newspapers need outside financial assistance to bring themselves up-to-date, but Government money should be only a last and temporary resort, according to the interim report of the Royal Commission on the Press, published today.

The report says the money the industry needs should be drawn as far as possible from the private sector. The most appropriate source, the report recommends, is Finance for Industry, an organisation funded by the country’s major banks and the Bank of England.

But if any publishing house is unable to meet the security requirements of the F.F.1., the report says, then Government loans should be made available to finance the necessary changes. “We regard it as fundamental that Governments must not be in a position to exert partisan influence upon newspapers,” the commission says. In addition the commission recommends interest relief of up to 4 per cent for two years to be paid by the Government to all newspapers, from whatever source the loan funds are provided, as an incentive for industrywide, rather than piecemeal, solutions. Its analysis of the industry’s finances confirms that, while the worst fears expressed by the industry at I the start of the inquiry are I not borne out, the financial [position of the industry is ivery poor.

A long-term decline in circulation, the drop in advertising revenue as a result of the current recession, and the dramatic increase in the price of newsprint have contributed to this.

In 1974, only three dailies and three Sundays made a profit; in 1975 only four dailies and one Sunday.