THERE is no shortage of clouds as a result of Covid-19. There is death. Early death of people amongst us who were not ready to die. Then there is the economy, in the toilet as a result of the understandable action taken by our governments. Then there are the longer-term consequences of both. The lives sent off the rails by the early loss of a parent, a sibling, a partner. The livelihoods lost and families ruined by the economic devastation. And the indescribable burden of public debt which will have to be paid by generations to come.

But amongst these clouds, there are silver linings to be found. Some of them are not insubstantial.

The strain on the public finances may require a much more collaborative economic approach involving governments working much more closely with the private and voluntary sectors to deliver infrastructure and services. That would be a welcome development.

The health service has been forced to modernise its technology, quickly, now operating in some small areas in a way which it would have told us was impossible only weeks ago. Some of this progress will revert, but much will stick.

There is another cloud, perhaps not so obvious, perhaps not regarded as being so important, but which in my view risks a pervasive impact on the very fabric of our democracy – the demise of the press.

The risk is real. National newspapers, and in particular local ones, remain heavily dependent on print sales and print advertising revenue, despite the massive squeeze on both in recent years. Inevitably, the significant restrictions on people’s movement and the limitations placed on the operation of shops is causing a collapse.

And the impact is real, too. We hear much about ‘fake news’, and we are right to be concerned about the proliferation of it, but we should be absolutely clear that there are very few instances of it in the mainstream press.

Indeed the mainstream media has proven its enduring worth during the coronavirus pandemic with reporting which has been sensible, measured and accurate, whilst also holding governments to account. This newspaper, and its peers, can hold their heads high.

It is fair to ask why, then, if the product is so good, has the mainstream press endured a gradual demise as people increasingly turn to blogs and social media syndication for its news?

The press is not a blameless bystander; often guilty of analogue behaviour in a digital world, it has in many cases been poor at the switch to online, and in most cases woeful at the monetisation of that switch.

Nonetheless, there has always been, and remains, an elephant in the room, and a gargantuan one at that. The BBC. And it is not the elephant in only one room. It is the elephant in the TV room. It is the elephant in the radio room. And, through its website, it is the elephant in the newsroom, too.

While news outlets which depend on sales fall around them, the BBC stands tall. While outlets which depend on advertising sink, the BBC happily floats. It is immune. Immune to consumer trends. Immune to commercial reality. And immune to pandemic.

Scots consume an average of around an hour of BBC content every day, according to the most recent research by Statista.

So, yes, local and regional newspapers have been cumbersome at shifting to a digital-first strategy. But who can argue with the editor who says that their publication cannot possibly be the default outlet for local news when the BBC website has localised its coverage city-by-city, area-by-area.

And, yes, national newspapers have been sluggish at creating a credible subscription model. But who can argue with the editor who would have to charge for access to the news, politics, business, sport and everything else which the BBC’s website gives away for ‘free’. The phrase ‘between a rock and a hard place’ was invented for situations like this.

The licence fee – a compulsory tax on owning a television – is the source of the BBC’s ability to create this unassailable monopoly position. It has a shelf life; even the BBC itself now appears to accept that. But coronavirus gives us both a reason and an opportunity to remove it immediately.

Instead, we should ask the people of our country to spend some of the £12.88 per month cost of the fee on their own choice of media subscription, whether online or in print. This would be an ‘all in this together’ act of public service which would save and secure our independent media for the future.

Of course this would have consequences. All actions do. It would utterly change the BBC – a hugely popular institution, which enjoys approval ratings of which a government could only dream. However, far from being the end of the BBC, this would be the start of a new BBC which could last indefinitely. Those of us who value its content, as I do, could take out a subscription, as I would.

In this respect, the BBC need be no different from Sky, BT, Netflix or Amazon, and indeed it already has its own test-bed in place in the form of BritBox.

We should also be in no doubt that the notion that we need the BBC to deliver us an unbiased service which nobody else can is a concept from an age past, which neither fits modern media nor bears any resemblance to reality.

The impartiality of the BBC exists in name only. This is not a criticism; impartiality in today’s BBC is an impossibility. Every day, all the time, in all formats, BBC staff make editorial judgements. Which story gets top billing on the website? Who is asked to respond to a government announcement?

And BBC presenters, from Andrew Neil to Emily Maitlis, increasingly offer their own views, both in introductory monologues and laced through the questions they ask. This is normal, human, understandable. But not impartial.

We want the BBC, which is why it will survive after the licence fee is scrapped. But we don’t need it anymore. What we need is a plural, vibrant, modern media; the silver lining of this cloud. And we can’t have one until we cut the cord.

Andy Maciver is Director of Message Matters

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