Trinity Mirror CEO (and therefore my ultimate boss) Sly Bailey told an industry conference earlier this month that commercial news organisations were investing in digital platforms.

But she said: "If online audiences are diverted away to BBC sites though unfair competition, using public money and the BBC's unparalleled promotional machine, there will be an impact on the commercial sector's ability to develop these digital businesses, to grow these digital revenues and to invest."

The BBC's strategy "is anti-competitive, it is unnecessary, and it will waste public money," she said.

Mr Burnham talked about the importance of local newspapers and his admiration for the work they were doing developing digital media.

But he said it was not his role to tell the BBC what to do, and pointed out that the BBC Trust (chaired by former Birmingham Council Chief Executive Sir Michael Lyons) was already considering these issues.

He also said the BBC deserved some credit for developing its website ten years ago, when it got some stick for doing so.

The BBC is planning 60 local video websites.

                           

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