Oxford and the USA

Oxford and the USA, eh? What’s the connection and the context here you may wonder?

Well, there are two parliamentary seats up for grabs in a few days time and two newspapers that dominate what I like to call the ‘printed media’. Or are there?

There’s no argument about two parliamentary seats: Oxford East and Oxford West and Abingdon. The two newspapers I refer to are “The Oxford Mail” and “The Oxford Times”.

These two “news” papers are in fact, one and the same: one a daily tabloid that does not look out of place next to any other and the other, a weekly compact, former broadsheet, that basically cherry-picks and ‘re-brands’ the stories from the weeks “Mail”. They are, however, both produced by a company called Newsquest, which just happens to be the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the UK. Not content with owning the titles of Oxford’s two “Premier” local newspapers, Newsquest also owns the title, The Oxford Star, the “premier” free advertiser.

In short, Newsquest has a monopoly on Oxford’s printed media.

Newsquest shares its reporters and other resources across its titles, which are not just limited to Oxford, but over 200 local newspaper titles across the UK.

If you’re both surprised and disappointed that the “Oxford Mail” and “Times” aren’t quite the cosy, re-assuring, little examples of local, responsible and investigative journalism you thought they were, then let me re-assure (or rather de-assure) you further: Newsquest is owned by Gannett, a publically traded company based in the United States.

What I am trying to demonstrate here is that our News is fast becoming polarised and uncompetitive – just like every other commodity in our daily lives.

Large Media businesses such as Gannett and News Corporation (the Rupert Murdoch empire) have an increasing and insidiously subliminal effect on the way we think: they have their vested interests – their shareholders.

So before you accuse the likes of the BBC of bias, and profess resentment at paying the licence fee on Facebook groups, remember that it does, thank goodness, remain and represent at least, some competition.