I got a nice e-mail from a good friend, a former colleague of mine at a local newspaper in England, who was one of the best sub-editors I've worked with. He told me he's resigning on Monday and taking up a post in public relations. This from a local newspaper "lifer" came as a bit of a surprise. But, he said now was a very good time to get out of newspapers into the world of PR.
It's probably too soon to write the obituary for the newspaper industry, but certainly the patient is looking rather gaunt. Circulation has been noticeably weakening since the early 1990s. There have been good days, when the global economy was booming and advertising revenue flowed from estate agents, but the lifeblood of numbers of readers has been declining steadily since even before the explosion of the internet. Now as the ad money dries up, it's time to talk of a crisis. Small papers are closing down in Britain and even bigger ones like the Manchester Evening News are fighting for survival, a surprising fact brought to my attention by avid Tower Tales comment-leaver Dr Datsun Kildare (whose amusing name makes up for his atrocious spelling).
Why should anyone outside of the business care? Information is power, if you don't have any, you are at the mercy of those who do. Can the internet and Tom-Paine-like citizen journalist bloggers fill the shoes of local newspapers to keep democracy alive? They have to, for all our sakes. And on the upside, rather the citizen journalist than the Citizen Kane.
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5 comments:
guido fawkes has been forecasting this for a long time.
local newspapers are dead.the leicester mercury's circualtion is now 27,000 in the city itself.
of late the property pages have become empty and this is a situation that will not reverse.more and more people look online for houses.the jobs section,long held afloat by leicester council spending £1 million a year on advertising,is now way behind the interent.
in terms of news,I read a national before work but for most people I know around my age and younger,getting a paper delivered is pointless as they are off to work a 7.
I give the mercury 5 years.It has alienated many people by being to pro Labour,but then that was paying the bills.It's very hard to replace the council cash and the credit crunch has left the property section a shadow of it's former self.
For real opinion,I read the blogs.balance them out and you can see the concensus.there is also an element of independence as oin the whole,bloggers are beholden to no vested interest for money.
when I lookm at this housing crash and see the pathetic attempts by local papers the country over to make people believe hosuing wasn't crashing so the estate agents would come back.will post a link I saw for this when I have time.
they are caught between a rock and hard place.to stay popular they must remain independant newswise,to stay solvent they must nurture the hand that feeds them.
personally,I think bloggers will be a force that strengthens our democracy and our freedosm.the politicians can't hide stuff away like they used to.
yours in freedom
d.kildare doctor of quackery
Thanks for the comment. Very thought provoking. I found something here about the future of journalism as a business, and think it may point the way forward:
http://publishing2.com/2008/11/10/the-market-and-the-internet-dont-care-if-you-make-money/
Oh, forgot to mention. All the gossip in the newsrooms of the Derby Telegraph, Leicester Mercury and Nottingham Evening Post is of when, not if, they will effectively merge. What the remaining readers will see is the front and back pages specific to the city, then the insides will be identical papers, at a fraction of the cost (and number of journalists).
that will stave off the wolves for another ten years.for me,the mercury was/is as dull as ditchwater.no opinions,nothing to unsettel the equilibrium.I dont know what the others are like but the mercury is particularly dire imho.
thats where blogging is so strong.it's individualistic and extrmemly opinionated.
i think it'll be interesting to see which of the nationals is still independant in 5 years.mail/telegraph but all the rest are exposed
great linky btw.absolutely spot on as well.
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