"Nation shall speak peace unto nation". The famous BBC motto was on display, as always, at Bush House in central London yesterday.
"Nation shall speak peace unto nation". The famous BBC motto was on display, as always, at Bush House in central London yesterday.
But the blunt message from a news conference held in the corporation's spiritual home was that, if village wants to speak unto village, then the BBC should butt out and people should carry on relying on their local newspaper.
Sir Michael Lyons, the chair of the BBC Trust, flatly rejected controversial proposals to launch a £68m network of local news websites with video content.
The plans had been vociferously opposed by regional newspapers, who saw the potential for their own efforts to move content online to be seriously undermined by state-funded competition from the BBC.
The Trust, which replaced the old board of governors as the authority providing public oversight of BBC management, agreed with the weight of representations made to its inquiry and spelled out its rejection in plain and simple terms.
The provisional conclusion of the trust's "public value test" was that the planned local news service of more than 60 websites "would not improve services for the public enough to justify either the investment of licence fee funds or the negative impact on commercial media".
Research for the Trust found that people wanted local news, but not a parochial service. Young people were not interested, 30 to 40-year-olds had no time and older people had problems with online access and were already high-level consumers of local BBC services.
Addressing himself directly to the commercial media sector, Sir Michael said the decision to refuse permission for the video network would mean that "local newspapers and other commercial media can invest in their online services in the knowledge that the BBC does not intend to make this new intervention in the market".
An Ofcom study into the commercial impact of the plan found that the BBC local video services would mean annual revenues from existing commercial providers falling by up to 4%.
A sigh of relief greeted the decision across the commercial media sector last night. Jim Raeburn of the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society, the print industry forum, said they would reinforce their message of opposition during the Trust's consultation period. "We campaigned hard in the belief that the BBC should not use its privileged position to displace local news and information already provided online," said Mr Raeburn.
"This could have had a very negative impact at a crucial time in the digital development of newspapers."
Bob Satchwell, the executive director of the Society of Newspaper Editors, welcomed the fact that the BBC Trust and Ofcom had listened to a powerfully argued case.
"Quite clearly the BBC has recognised the potential damaging effect, particularly in regional newspapers, which are facing the double challenge of huge structural change as well as the general economic malaise.
"I have always believed that there is scope for the BBC to work with regional newspapers - but it has to be a true partnership of equals and that is extremely difficult to achieve when one partner is a very powerful, highly talented and well-developed big brother."
The conclusion of the BBC trustees did not stop with crushing the BBC's local online plans. The corporation was told to concentrate on "improving the quality of existing services", including regional news - within existing budgets.
