Examination of Witnesses (Questions 2520
- 2525)
WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL 2008
Mr Paul Myners
Q2520 Lord Maxton:
On plurality, you say you are all for it but, moving to radio
now rather than the newspaper side, is there not a tendency in
some of your radio stations to begin to stop them being local
and to merge them into more national stations. Smooth Radio is
supposed to be a Scottish/Glasgow station where I listen to it,
but sometimes I appear to be listening to something that is coming
from somewhere else.
Mr Myners: Smooth Radio has been very successful.
It is probably one of the most successful commercial radio stations
in the country in terms of its market share growth, so it must
be doing something right, but we are running it for profit and,
therefore, we strike a balance between local content and national
content and there are some things which can as well be done from
the centre rather than in Scotland.
Q2521 Lord Maxton:
Is the tendency towards local radio station becoming a national
radio station?
Mr Myners: No. I think maintaining local identity
is very important. I would not like to see any of our local stations
in Wales, the north-west of England and the South East lose their
strong sense of regional and local identity. This is their distinguishing
feature. This is their source of strength.
Q2522 Bishop of Manchester:
Talking about strength and your mention of Smooth Radio as being
the most successful of the ones you have, can you give us an indication
of the listening figures, to say the best time of the day or the
best programme?
Mr Myners: I would have to give you a written
answer to that. I would be very happy to do so.
Q2523 Chairman:
There is a tendency, not just in radio but in newspapers as well,
to get away from the truly local, I think. Some or our evening
newspapers now are produced the day before, so you are not really
up-to-date—the kind of position I think we all can remember
some years ago. It is all getting a little away from the truly
local. Is that fair?
Mr Myners: I think the content of a local newspaper
will tend to be a blend of the truly local, the larger local area,
which therefore may be content which is shared with other titles
in the same group—so a newspaper providing both Manchester
content and north-west of England content—and then also
national and international content. I think the balance of the
truly local has probably reduced, my Lord Chairman, and I think
that is a consequence of the economic pressures these papers find
themselves under.
Q2524 Chairman:
We have had provided to us a bit of evidence on supplements. In
March, an education supplement was provided: the Guardian
supplement which covered the 14-19 Reform Programme. The Department
of Education spent £42,000 on it, but I think I am right
in saying that it was never labelled as such. It was never labelled
as a special supplement. In other words, it appeared to be a report
obviously written by the Guardian. You have made quite
a lot about the editorial controls that there are, is that the
kind of policy you would defend?
Mr Myners: If we did not make it clear that
it was a paid-for supplement, then that was a very serious oversight
on our part. Our policy is very, very clear: any supplement which
is commissioned by a third party must be prominently flagged as
being a supplement. In addition to that, we give no editorial
cross-reference from the rest of the paper; we do not endorse
the supplement, as such, in the broader flow of the paper; and
we accept no editorial direction as to the content of the supplement.
If the situation is as you describe it, this would have been an
oversight on our part and inconsistent with our very clear and
declared policy.
Q2525 Chairman:
Thank you. That is very frank. Would you perhaps like to take
that away and drop us a note about it?
Mr Myners: I would be delighted to do so, my
Lord Chairman.
Chairman: Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you for your evidence.
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