Tussle over Hackney Today continues after council rapped by DCLG

Hackney Today has been competing with local newspapers for advertising

Hackney Council has responded to a government warning instructing it to stop publishing Hackney Today fortnightly.

The council declined to share with the Hackney Citizen the contents of its letter to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), saying this was subject to legal privilege.

But a Town Hall spokesperson said: “The council has responded to the DCLG within their 14 day deadline, reiterating our position that Hackney Today provides the best value for money solution for the council to regularly and effectively communicate with its diverse communities.

“We have once again stated that we will voluntarily reduce the frequency of publication of Hackney Today, when the government lifts the out-dated legal requirements to publish statutory notices in a printed fortnightly publication. We have not yet received any further correspondence from DCLG.”

Following a campaign by the Hackney Citizen, Hackney Council last month said it had ditched an unusual arrangement under which personnel at Greenwich Council sold heavily discounted advertising space in Hackney Today on commission.

A claim by Hackney Council that it was not “going after” the traditional advertising base of local newspapers or undercutting them was exposed as untrue after it emerged a local business that has advertised in both the Hackney Citizen and Hackney Gazette was approached with an offer of heavily discounted space in Hackney Today.

Money the council makes from display advertising in Hackney Today is a fraction of the £516,000 made last year by Tower Hamlets Council from advertising in weekly freesheet East End Life.

But despite overseeing one of the most deprived areas of the country, Tower Hamlets Council decided to fall in line by agreeing to obey the rules stipulating that council freesheets should not be published more often than quarterly to ensure they do not edge out real local papers.

Only a tiny number of councils, of which Hackney is one, continue to disregard these rules.

Commercial newspaper publishers are unable to match rates offered by Hackney Today, which can sustain heavily discounted sales because it is subsidised by Hackney taxpayers.