Local newspaper closures ‘blown out of proportion’
Speaking to the House of Commons culture select committee, Highfield says the number of local newspapers closed over the last decade has been “blown out of all proportion”, with most of the 300 being shut not “papers of record” that are vital to most UK communities.
This is something that is often blown out of all proportion. The papers that have been closed were often the freesheets that were opened in the 1990s to mop up low-yielding advertising revenues when the times were good… I think you’ll find the numbers of papers of record that have closed over the last decade is incredibly low. That is something that needs to be understood.