Reports leaves out merger reforms
The Digital Britain report dealt a blow to regional media groups on Tuesday as rules on mergers in the media industry were left unchanged.
Seven of the largest media publishers in the UK presented a report to the Office of Fair Trading in February urging improvements in the process for newspaper mergers.
Lord Carter's Digital Britain report has, however, recommended against changes to ownership regulations in regional media, something which publishers such as Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror have been campaigning for.
The new report has instructed an Audit Commission to carry out inquiries into the impact of council newspapers and recommend whether restraints should be placed on them, in a boost for regional publishers.
The increasing number of council-published papers has been a concern for regional publishers who say they threaten the declining revenue streams of their newspapers.