Is this the death of local newspapers?
LOCAL newspapers have become amongst the first victims of the global recession with major job losses, pay freezes and closures announced.
Some commmentators are already predicting that the future for local papers is bleak, almost terminal, as they are hit both by the economic downturn and the march of the internet.
Editorial quality is always one of the first things to be sacrificed it seems, as newspaper ‘bean counters’ cut jobs and titles to reduce costs and maintain profits for their shareholders.
Here in the North West, for example, 43 journalist jobs are going at Trinity Newspapers on Merseyside, publishers of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post; the Guardian Media Group, publishers of the Manchester Evening News, has closed local paper offices all over Greater Manchester and the Newsquest-owned Bury Times is now being moved to Bolton! The same story is being repeated all over the country.
All this when many have long bemoaned the apparent lack of commitment to in-depth reporting from newspaper managements which seem obsessed with celebrity and short-termism.
And at the same time as the axe is being wielded, print journalists are under mounting pressure to master the skills of podcasting, blogs and video-making for YouTube, as their newspaper’s editorial activity effectively shifts on to the internet.
It almost goes without saying, of course, that much of this is not being reported – by local newspapers.
But all is not doom and gloom. Readers of the Bury Times in Greater Manchester have been amongst the most active in protesting about the death of their own local paper.
A group on the social network, Facebook, now has more than 700 members, including the town’s two Labour MPs and its Euro MP. The Facebook group has also had some success in gaining publicity for their cause - and apparently causing great embarrassment amongst the bosses at the parent company, Newsquest.
Whether the Facebook friends will succeed in saving the BT remains to be seen. But the campaign shows that local readers are prepared to stand up for their own local paper and that social networks can be extremely effective ways of enlisting online support.
We can only hope that the cuts in local papers will encourage the birth online of a rash of new locally-based news outlets to rival them.
Published on: January 18, 2009
Filed in: Corporate Social Responsibility (Sound behaviour), Media relations
Possibly related to:
» The crisis in local newspapers: public funding?
» Matt Finnegan guest editor for How-Do
» Victory for jobs and journalists!
Bookmark this post:
