A case of unfair competition

Press Gazette are reporting that the BBC's plans for 60 ultra local web sites has not gone down very well with the local newspaper industry.


It quotes fron Ian Davies,development director of Archant who says

What a strange approach to public service media. Look at what the community-leading local press is doing in reinventing itself to provide local content and ‘connectivity’ beyond print; then take a huge publicly funded stick and swing hard to cause as much damage as possible to this vital organ of local comment and democracy.
“This is not competition. This is BBC, full-bodied, unfair, damaging to existing emerging services, competition. It seems that attempted demolition is the sincerest form of flattery.”

I agree with him to a certain extent.We have identified that the local and hyperlocal news resource may be one way of developing future media resource.Local papers already seeing their markets collapse are best placed in terms of rtesource to persue this route.The BBC can do it without the cpaital risk of a private company.