WE were left speechless today when a news item arrived in our Inbox. We thought we should share it….

Bad news ahead could be good news for Begbies

Begbies Traynor, the Manchester-based insolvency and recovery specialist, has released its interim results for the six months to 31 October 2009. Profit before tax rose by 69 per cent from £2.1m to £3.6m as revenue climbed from £28.3m to £34.2m. Executive chairman Ric Traynor warned that temporary economic support measures taken by the government would slow insolvencies, meaning full-year results are expected to be “slightly below current consensus market expectations”. But he added: “We expect to make considerable further progress as a result of anticipated rises in the level of insolvencies in the second half of the calendar year, consistent with patterns experienced over the last three recessions.”

After recovering our voices, we could only marvel at the middle sentence which is a classic of its kind and worth re-iterating….”temporary economic support measures would slow insolvencies….full year results…slightly below…expectations.”

In other words, “sorry chaps, but we haven’t made nearly as much money as we hoped in this recession, cos the Govt have stepped in to stop companies shutting down and throwing people on the dole.”

But all is not lost, according to Mr Traynor, (pictured)  who looks forward to a rise in the number of insolvencies later this year. “We expect to make considerable further progress,” he opines, loftily.

We find the use of the word “progress” particularly enchanting.

So, that’s alright then. We can expect more companies closing, more jobs going, more families paying the price for a recession caused in City boardrooms not dissimilar to those of Begbies Traynor.

This is the world that we live in….

A RAY of hope for local newspapers this week as five redundant journalists team up to start their own publication.

The five were all employed by the Manchester-based MEN Media before their papers were either shut-down or centralised miles away from their readers, in the wave of cost-cutting prompted by the recession and growth of the internet.

Some doom and gloom merchants have already been quick to give their pessimistic verdict on the venture at the North West media web-site, How Do.

But all those with an interest in local journalism and vibrant, questioning local papers, will welcome the team’s initiative and bravery in setting up PIP Media.

Bosses at the mainstream media will, no doubt, be closely watching how their former employees fare as competitors. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

And there will be lots of questions about the business model for the venture – not least what the ‘on-line’ offer will be and how they aim to attract enough advertising revenue to succeed.

These are testing times for everyone involved in the media, but Sound Communication for one, wishes the first new paper, the Rochdale and Heywood Independent, every success.

We hope it is the first of many more such journalism-led ventures.

CONSUMER spending on “ethical” goods has almost tripled in the last decade, according to the Co-op Bank.

Their annual ethical consumerism report shows that ethical spending in Britain has grown from £13.5 billion in 1999 to £36 billion ten years later.

Fairtrade products lead the charge with just £22 million spent on them in 1999, compared to £635 million last year.

Spending on “green” products, such as light bulbs and rechargeable batteries, has increased by five times, from £1.4 billion in 1999 to £7 billion.

The controversial financial services market has also seen ethical banking and investments triple over the course of the decade.

Now, half of all adults say they have bought goods primarily on ethical grounds in the past year.

Average household spending on ethical food and drink has increased from £81 a year to £244 in the last decade.

But overall, the market for environmentally friendly goods, that are sustainable or support poor communities is still less than one per cent (more than £6 billion) of the £891billion spent by households last year.

WHAT next for local newspapers struggling to cope with the impact of the internet and the loss of advertising revenue due to the recession?

One answer comes from politicians in Wales who are calling for public funding for new community newspapers.

They believe, with some justification, that the widespread closures and redundancies amongst local newspapers have had a direct effect on the quality of information provided to local communities.

Their answer is to press for taxpayers to fund alternative sources of news, information and entertainment.

At one stage earlier this year, Manchester city council also seemed to be considering investing public money in local journalism, following repeated and prolonged cuts at the Guardian & Manchester Evening News Group.

That promising initiative seems to have disappeared – no doubt prompted by the looming spectre of public spending cuts.

Obviously, politicians would be on a sticky wicket in  justifying the investment in local newspapers, or community-based alternatives, when ‘front-line’ services are under threat.

But ask yourself what role, if any, your local council could play in helping provide unbiased, impartial local news coverage? Would municipal media represent the dead-hand of the state?

Would petty officialdom and their mountains of bureacracy always threaten to stifle controversy, the exposure of wrong-doing and the lively cut and thrust of debate about local matters, which is the lifeblood of the best local newspapers?

Does he who pays the piper always call the tune?

If not – and its a big ‘if’ – with the advent of the world wide web, can new mechanisms be constructed which guarantee both the independence of local journalism and its future sustainability?

Perhaps that is the real challenge for local newspaper journalism in the age of the internet and post recession.

Students at All Saints

STUDENTS from a Salford college came up with their own enterprising plans after being given a unique insight into social businesses.

They developed a range of new ideas for social businesses locally, based around the environment, youth and sports facilities after spending the day finding out about social enterprise.

More than 150 Year 10 students at All Hallows Business and Enterprise College in Weaste took part in the ‘Enterprise Day’ sessions.

Amongst the businesses who took part was the Salford-based health and social care enterprise, Unlimited Potential; The Big Life Company; Emerge, PeoplesVoiceMedia; Contour Housing and Sound Communication.

The students were involved in a range of workshops and activities designed to give them experience of the world of work and develop their own entrepreneurial skills.

They found out how profits from the social businesses did not go to anonymous shareholders, but were ploughed back into the communities they served and business development.

The session was organised by Salford Business Education Partnership and Form Teacher Yasmin Hussain as part of a programme to develop work-related learning.

As part of its contribution, Sound Communication ran half a dozen workshops with the students, designed to help them write a newsworthy press release about the event for the local media.

Director Matt Finnegan said: “The teenagers were very quick to learn and enthusiastic – they understood very quickly how social enterprises differ from private companies or public sector organisations.

“And they came up with some cracking ideas of their own for social businesses in the area – it will be interesting to see how their ideas develop further.”

Vicky Winstanley, Enterprise Cordinator for Salford BEP, added: “It was a very successful day – both the school and I were very pleased with the event. We are extremely grateful to all of the social enterprises involved for giving up their time for free to help spread the word.”

SOUND Communication today proudly announces its (slightly intermittent) Annual Media Awards….

And already the nominations are flowing in.

Step forward the Manchester Evening News, the first print publication to win a prized gong.

For the most crass, offensive and distasteful contribution to the subject of mental health awareness, we have no hesitation in nominating the MEN’s Business Matters column of  Thursday 27th August 2009, written by Employment Law Consultant, Paul Davidge, for this shocking headline:

“Is the issue of mental health driving employers mad?”

Whilst this headline was, no doubt, the product of an exodus of journalistic sub-editing talent caused by the Guardian Media Group’s swingeing cuts, we do not think there is any excuse for this kind of glib, ignorant and insensitive description of an incredibly serious subject.

It’s not funny. And it’s not clever.

We hope the writer, Mr Davidge dissassociates himself from this kind of drivel. Perhaps he should seek a public apology?

The Manchester Evening News – once one of Britain’s great regional newspapers – should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

• Interestingly, the on-line version of the column does not contain the offending headline. Thankfully.

SHADOW Home Secretary Chris Grayling has been rightly castigated for his intemperate remarks which compared Liverpool and Manchester with the American city of Baltimore depicted in TV’s cult series, The Wire.

Grayling suggested that the level of lawlessness in the two Northern cities was comparable to the fictional bloody, drug-ridden slums of the US city.

Although it may suit Grayling’s political purposes – and attract easy media headlines – to launch such an outburst, it is so way off-beam as to be faintly ridiculous.

So we shall move on.

However, one aspect of The Wire, currently showing on BBC2, which does stand comparison is in its depiction of the current state of  the media.

The fictional Baltimore Sun is closing offices, losing gifted, connected staff and missing important stories as the money men in charge grapple with the onset of the internet.

Swap Baltimore for Bury, Birmingham, or Basildon and the story is the same. Same pressures, same environment, same profane language.

The Wire’s depiction of frustrated but ambitious reporters itching to get out, supine management, declining editorial standards and a supremely cynical City editor, Gus Haynes (pictured above) is strikingly authentic – even for Britain.

As one senior North West journalist commented the other day: “It’s so accurate, it’s almost uncanny. Completely spot on.”

So if you want to find out what life is really like on your local newspaper, tune into The Wire next Monday night. You won’t regret it.

IS the BBC in favour of unfair trade?

That’s the question after the Corporation forced newscaster George Alagiah to quit as patron of the Fairtrade Foundation, a registered charity.

Seems the Beeb thought there would be some conflict of interest because Alagiah, who is unpaid and who was approved as a Patron in 2002, is due to front a programme on food later this year.

The Fairtrade Foundation, of course, helps producers in developing countries to win a fair price for their work – rather than being routinely exploited by corporate conglomerates. More on The BBC blunders over George Alagiah and the Fairtrade Foundation

THE presses will roll for the last time at the Liverpool Echo on Saturday morning as printing is transferred 40 miles outside the city, to Oldham.

More than 100 jobs have been axed in the cost-cutting move by owners Trinity Mirror, which on Thursday announced half-year profits of £49.1million.

The closure of the Old Hall Street plant brings to an end 154 years of printing in Liverpool.

Both the Liverpool Echo and its stable-mate, the Daily Post will now be printed on presses at Trinity Mirror’s huge plant at Hollinwood Drive in Chadderton, Oldham, in Greater Manchester.

Trinity, publishers of the Daily Mirror, say that the move out of Liverpool will mean “a better, brighter Echo for readers and better long-term prospects for the staff and the business.”

But union leaders accuse the Echo of “hypocrisy” and say it is betraying Liverpool by taking jobs out of the city and harming the Merseyside community which the paper serves. More on 100 jobs axed as Liverpool Echo moves printing to Oldham

CONGRATULATIONS  to journalists at Trinity Mirror in the Midlands for averting threatened compulsory redundancies at their newspapers.

The threat of a one-day strike by journalists this Thursday, seems to have brought Trinity bosses to their senses.

The strike has now been called off after Trinity, publishers of the Daily Mirror, agreed to withdraw compulsory job losses in an effort to maintain the company’s massive profits.

But the closure of a series of Trinity weekly titles in the Midlands has still gone ahead -  just like at other Trinity regional and local newspapers nationwide.

The Birmingham victory is a small but important step forward in the campaign to stand up for local newspapers, which are often the lifeblood of local communities.

Unfortunately, we cannot find any report of the NUJ’s victory in the Trinity titles, the Birmingham Post and Mail.

However, it is to be hoped that the news that  job losses are not inevitable in the recession will spread further afield and help encourage other union members to unite and campaign against the cuts in local newspapers.

Meanwhile in Liverpool, Trinity Mirror will next week switch daily printing of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo from the city, along the M62 and past the centre of Manchester to Oldham, as another cost-cutting measure in a series which have already included job losses, pay freezes and newspaper closures on Merseyside.

• Trinity Mirror made a £196million profit in 2007 and  has paid out £520million to shareholders in the last ten years.