What Labour’s Media Shake-Up Means for PR and Comms Teams
Green paper into the future of UK media published as Starmer quits offering a way to boost content on social media and YouTube
The media landscape is changing at pace – and keeping up with the latest developments and moves will give every comms expert an advantage over their rivals. Every week take a look at the media business from mainstream and ‘legacy’ media to cutting edge tech and the latest trends and developments – and how you can use that know-how.
A problem, and perhaps a solution, has emerged from the final days of the Keir Starmer administration.
The problem is one we have discussed a lot in recent months – the plunging numbers of hits online that mainstream media is getting on key social media. It means less eyeballs on stories and less revenue for publishers. The implication for comms teams is that the hard work you put in to get publicity is increasingly being seen by fewer people.
More evidence of the issue came this week after research showed the majority of the UK’s largest local news websites have seen a decline in audience and minutes spent with their content in the past year. Among the 75 biggest local news titles in the UK, just 16 grew their audience year on year. The average monthly audience at the 75 local news brands analysed fell by 19%, from 2.3 million in April 2025 to 1.5 million.
The stats are a little depressing. We have already seen that national titles have been badly hit but local journalism has been one of the few bright spots.
There also seems to be another interest group worried about the figures – the Government. This week, the day after the Prime minister announced he was standing down, a green paper was published outlining a “new strategic direction for UK media”.
And maybe it offers a possible solution to that Google algorithm problem that is plaguing all publishers.
It seems ministers genuinely want to shore up the news media and public service broadcasters primarily by demanding that YouTube and Meta prioritise what the paper calls “trustworthy” sources. That explicitly identifies the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and other major broadcasters and potentially will include publishers. The Government said “a range of national and local news publishers” could be among those given prominence.
How that would exactly look is not clear but it would mean that trustworthy publishers and broadcasters may come up first in searches and have their material promoted over less authoritative sources.
It’s not the first intervention into the industry we have seen from this Labour government. Back in March, it pledged to pay up to £12 million to local media outlets over the next two years to support innovation and help fill what it calls “news deserts” – the 37 local authority districts with no dedicated print, online, TV or radio outlets, affecting 4.4 million people.
It seems ministers have a genuine concern about the health of the country’s media – particularly at a time when conspiracy theorists, bad actors and troublemakers are growing in numbers and reach. Misinformation and provocation online have sparked rioting, false fears and increased distrust in elected authorities and public bodies.
The plan is to ask big tech like YouTube and Meta to make the changes voluntarily but regulation and legislation have not been ruled out, accrding to Department of Culture, Media and Sport Minister Ian Murray.
We will keep an eye on what happens but there are three things comms teams should watch…
