BBC Media City in Salford. Picture: Shutterstock/Nebelung
Mirror publisher Reach has accused the BBC of damaging the local news ecosystem.
The comments were included in Reach’s response to the Green Paper on the renewal of the BBC’s Royal Charter .
The consultation of the Charter, submitted to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, closed on 10 March and expires in December 2027.
In its submission shared with Press Gazette, Reach criticised the BBC’s impact on the local news market, calling it “aggressive expansion in digital text stories, competing with publishers already facing market challenges”.
[Read more: Reach editorial boss: BBC should work with us, not against us ]
The publisher said this expansion has made it “harder for publishers, who employ far more local journalists than the BBC does, to reach audiences and drive subscriptions”.
Reach also said the broadcaster is “leveraging its unfair market position” which was supported by Ofcom data from 2024.
The regulator found an increase in local news produced online by the BBC is adding to the “headwinds” facing local news publishers .
BBC’s ‘unfair advantages’
Reach argued as the BBC uses its “dominant” market position to “distort” the local news ecosystem, it has advantages commercial publishers do not have.
In its submission, the publisher listed the BBC’s investment and strong visibility in Google Search due to the broadcaster not running adverts.
Google “prioritises page speed and clean user experience”, Reach argued, so BBC lists above commercial outlets.
The publisher also claimed the BBC recreates popular stories already produced by other local news sites.
“The BBC is removing the need for people to visit the websites of commercial publishers, who collectively employ more journalists locally than the BBC, cover more stories than the BBC, and whose future is now being jeopardised by the BBC,” Reach said.
The publisher cited Ofcom’s latest report , sharing BBC’s share of local news page views increased from 20% in 2022 to 34% in 2025.
Reach estimated the BBC’s local page views sit at around 300 million a month, which the broadcaster said is a substantial increase on previous figures.
Reach argued this is a “detriment” to local news and its ability to drive ad revenue and attract subscriptions.
BBC response
A BBC spokesperson told Press Gazette the broadcaster is “committed to supporting local news”.
“Since 2018 we have funded the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) which has published more than 530,000 stories, supporting the journalism of more than 230 commercial media organisations across the UK,” they said.
“ Our response to the Government’s green paper sets out how we aim to grow our support further, both through the LDRS and by setting a target of 50 million referrals a year from BBC Nations online content to the websites of Local News Partners.”
[Read more: BBC boss Tim Davie says it’s not to blame for local press woes ]
Reach’s demands from Government
Reach has listed six demands from the Government to implement at the BBC to protect independent news.
- Links to external journalists wherever possible in its coverage, given its dominance in Google search
- Online news coverage to be at regional level rather than local level
- Buy local news from existing news providers
- Expand its Local Democracy Reporter Scheme (LDRS)
- Explore a community reporters programme, funding trainee journalists
- When launching on new platforms, to do so in a manner that “supports the whole of the news sector” rather than dominating the space
Reach also called for a “radical reform” of Ofcom, with it “not capable” in effectively regulating the BBC’s role in new coverage.
The publisher said Ofcom originally approved the BBC’s expansion into local text-and-image news after predicting this would have a less than 1% impact on local media revenues.
However, the publisher said data later showed a commercial sector decline in page views of 20%.
The BBC is “at risk like never before”, which is the the message behind the BBC’s response to the consultation, outgoing director of the BBC Tim Davie wrote in The Times .
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