%0 Journal Article
%T Are Changes in the Functioning of the Local Press Necessary? Discussion Concerning Self-Government and Private Press Models 
%A Kępa-Mętrak, Jolanta
%J Media Management
%V 2020
%R 10.4467/23540214ZM.20.029.12047
%N Volume 8, Issue 3
%P 153-168
%K local communication, local media, local press, local government press, media strength
%D 2020
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/zarzadzanie-mediami/article/czy-zmiany-w-funkcjonowaniu-prasy-lokalnej-sa-konieczne-dyskusja-wokol-modeli-prasy-samorzadowej-i-prywatnej
%X 
	The aim of the article is to draw attention to the strength of the local press, a bit paradoxically, by recalling the examples of the activities taken by various bodies against local government press. I assume that if the strength of the local press in influencing on the communities of communes or poviats were not noticed, there would not be any initiatives to defend the so-called independent press, the initiatives which tried to ban the issuing of press by commune, poviat and voivodship self- governments. I compared the analysis of speeches of the Association of Local Newspapers, of the Ombudsman, of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and finally of the Kukiz’15 parliamentary club with the latest data of the National Library concerning regional and local magazines which were registered in 2019. It turned out that they constitute nearly half of all new or changing titles submitted to the National Library. Among them there was 50 percent of magazines published by local governments or institutions subordinated to them. The existing projects aimed against self-government publishing activities have not been successful so far. The strength of the local press should not result from the status of its publisher, but from the message that the recipient gets.