There’s an awful lot being said at the moment about the death of newspapers in general and the death of regional and local newspapers in particular.
For anyone working in local journalism, none of this is new. The circulation figures of local papers have been falling for three decades.
A generation ago, the Bristol Evening Post would sell maybe 120,000 copies on a good day – that was the equivalent of one for every single household in the city! Now it’s a good day if the Post hits 50,000 sales.
But that’s not why the Post and the Western Daily Press sacked almost a third of their journalists and admin staff recently.
For many years, the local papers were protected from the decline in sales by the big fat cushion of advertising.
The big regional newspaper groups – Northcliffe, Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press – have all deliberately followed strategies in recent years of building local monopolies. That way, no other firm was getting any local advertising spend, and they could charge whatever rates they thought they could get away with.
Local journalists are being sacked now – Northcliffe recently got rid of almost 1,000 across the whole country – because the advertising which allowed them to safely ignore declining sales for years, is drifting away. This is a process which recession has only accelerated.
The papers made their biggest money from three things – house ads, job ads and car ads. That advertising is now going off to the web, and it’s never coming back. Consider: you want to buy or rent a house. Do you:
a) Pay 37p for the local rag and struggle through pages and pages of adverts looking for the sort of places that might be of interest, or,
b) Go online for free, go to various specialist property websites, tap in the locations you want, the price you can afford and any other special requirements and wait a few seconds for the results?
Among journalists it’s usual to blame boardroom short-termism and greed for the catastrophe which now faces the industry. And it is true that the management tend to be over-promoted sales people rather than journalists, because they were the ones making all the money until recently.
It was huge amounts of money, too; the regional groups tried to run profit margins of between 20% and 30%. That is, about a quarter of all the money they handled was profit. The widely-loathed supermarkets, by comparison, operate on margins of well under 5%.
However, it is also true that the hacks took their eyes off the ball.
Back in the heyday of evening paper sales, the world was like this:
A working man would finish his day-shift at the factory. He would get on his bicycle to ride home. He would stop at the newsagents and buy a packet of cigarettes and the local evening paper, which he would then read at home while his missus cooked his tea.
The world is a completely different place now. Now there are no factories. The working man will drive home, he won’t stop at the newsagents because he can’t park there, and he doesn’t smoke anyway. And when he gets home it’s like as not his turn to make the tea because the partner (to whom he’s not necessarily married) works full-time as well.
And yet, the local papers still read like they do 30 years ago. The only difference is colour printing.
The tragedy is that most papers persist in thinking of their readers as being overwhelmingly white, working class and over the age of 50. And that tends to become self-fulfilling.
This doesn’t mean that local newspapers are completely doomed, but it does mean that they have to change as radically as our lifestyles have in the last 30-40 years. For example, it might mean focusing on a middle class readership (as they’re more likely to read papers in the first place and they’re desirable for niche advertisers), or it could mean using modern marketing techniques to focus your paper very precisely on the 10%-20% of local people who are active in civic life through volunteering, campaigning, politics and/or community work.
As a card-carrying, paid-up member of the National Union of Journalists I’m supposed to say that cuts in journalism and the death of local papers is bad for local democracy.
Well it is, but things have been pretty bad for a long time. Back in the bad old days, local hacks usually enjoyed a cosy relationship with councillors and council officials. It’s much more stand-offish now but the difference is that the potential corruption of the old boy network has been replaced by the potential corruption of press officers and lavishly-funded PR departments.
Just as the Evening Post and Western Daily sackings were being announced, Avon & Somerset Police were advertising for media relations officers. At salaries of between £27 and £29k. Nice work. Especially if you’re used to the sort of crap money that local papers pay. All of those posts could well be filled by some very happy ex-Post journalists.
Soon every ex-hack in town will be working in corporate or public sector PR, all of them competing to feed stories to an ever-dwindling number of journalists. This is bad because busy hacks are often put under pressure to cut and paste press releases into their copy. There was even one case recently where the Post ran yet another uncritical story about local creationist theme park Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm and forgot to remove the PR contact details at the bottom of the story.
Actually, the Post is absolutely not the worst offender here. The worst is BBC Bristol, where they have a huge newsroom and lots of resources, but every day serve up press releases from Bristol City Council, Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol University (in that order) as “news”. Bristol is very, very poorly served indeed by the BBC.
From the apostles of the new digital age we hear that bloggers will fill the gap, and they’ll actually hold power to account better than the old media. This may be true, but it hasn’t really happened yet.
In Bristol, a number of bloggers including James Barlow, Chris Hutt, the Bristol Blogger and a few others are doing a splendid job of probing into what exactly happens down the Council House.
But that’s just the Council House. Bristol City Council has a pretty good website which makes a lot of information freely available to those with the patience and persistence to grind through it. This is good for democracy, but while the Council is central to a great deal of what happens locally, it’s nowhere near the whole story.
So for example the South West Regional Development Agency’s workings and budgets remain as opaque as ever. It takes a lot more work to pin down the misdeeds of this vast, free-spending quango.
Or what about Bristol University, for example, an old, fabulously wealthy institution which owns some of the best real estate in the city, which employs 5,000 staff and has a turnover of £260m. Most of this is public money. This is not to suggest that anyone there is guilty of anything – aside from the occasional amusing act of idiocy by some drunken Hooray – but it would be bloody hard to find out if they were.
And that’s before we even begin to wonder about big business.
At the moment, it feels as though we’re in the worst of both worlds. Our local paper is being destroyed by historical forces, while a confident alternative is not yet in place.
Let’s ruminate on what this alternative should look like in the coming weeks.
Welcome to the fray!
Plenty of food for thought in that post, Felix, I shall definitely ruminate
One brief observation: cut-and-paste journalism has been going on a long time, before teh internetz could be blamed. I first personally experienced it in 1994. I was at school, and I was taking part in a project for which I sought publicity. I wrote a letter to my local newspaper describing what the project was about, and a little about myself – just basic who/when/where/how/why stuff. A couple of days later the newspaper phoned me up to ask if they could send round a photographer. They did, he arrived, snapped me, and without so much as a telephone interview there was a 500 word article with photo in the next issue, which was then slightly rejigged into a second story in their free sister paper (which I hadn’t contacted. The story was essentially my letter verbatim, with some sections put into the third person and the rest left as quotations.
After starting work in the Bristol publishing sector in 1999, I discovered just how common this practice was, being as I was on the same PR and press office mail-out lists as the Post and the Beeb – University of Bristol, UWE, Bristol City Council, Avon & Somerset Constabulary, VOSCUR, BREC etc… Whole swathes of the local news was word-for-word what marketing officers had written.
Ha! That was fast. I’ve not even finished doing this page yet!
You’re right about cutting and pasting pre-dating t’internet of course. The point I was getting at was that it’s even easier now, and with fewer journalists still trying to fill the same amount of space, it’s likely to happen a lot more.
I completely agree with you there – though I think (putting my optimist’s hat on) that all this PR material being so ubiquitous thanks to the web makes it easier for ‘engaged citizens’ (for wont of a phrase) to be more constructively critical of their local news. In the past, newspaper readers simply were not aware of how much of what filled column inches was simply recycled PR guff. At least now we can often quickly trace back ‘news reports’ to their press release roots should we be so inclined.
Actually, “engaged citizens” could well be the key to the whole thing. Worrying about (or celebrating) the death of local papers might actually be missing the point entirely – which is that everyone who wants it should have access to authoritative – and accountable – sources of local news and information. Even in their hey-day, the newspapers were, at best, a very imperfect source.
That’s a really good summary of the situation Felix. But don’t expect too much from bloggers.
I think most of us do it because we have an axe to grind or a reputation to build (plus time to kill or just an out-of-control obsession) so we will tend to look for ’stories’ that further our peculiar aims. That’s fine as far as it goes because it usually pretty clear what a blogger’s agenda is.
But it doesn’t go very far. We only have so much time and will tend to go for easy targets where information can be obtained quickly on-line rather than as a result of exhaustive enquiries. So the more secretive institutions you refer to will remain untouched unless a mole feeds something through.
While individual bloggers will have a limited reach there are more of us than ever and while some may look like clones others will explore new angles. And as we saw with Red Trouser Gate, when one blogger gets a bite of something interesting others will move in like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
It’s also interesting to see the symbiotic relationship that’s developing between the traditional media and bloggers, feeding off each others stories. I don’t see a problem with that, except of course that in can only be a matter of time before bloggers appear on the scene who are in reality clandestine agents for some corporate or political interest.
Finally I must mention the extent to which bloggers tend to help each other out. If I see something that I think might interest X, I’ll send a link. Others, although not all, do this too. That kind of mutual aid is likely to grow and may even develop into something more formal.
There is actually plenty of information out there on the SWRDA, what there isn’t plenty of is my time.
I tend to do the council because it’s quick and easy. Following the example of The Bristolian, once you’ve set your little cast of comedy characters up, it’s easy enough to find odd bits of material to keep the stories churning out.
You could do the same with the RDA, the health service, Avon & Somerset etc. It’s a question of time …
Blogs need a business model – and the business people – to make them work properly. If they did they’d really put the local press to shame.
“Bloggers … I think most of us do it because …”
Or how about:
… because people are terminally frustrated with the fact that our voices have been neutered by a mass society.
… because the viewpoints and opinions that we hear around us every day are being completely ignored or even rubbished or condemned by the media luvvies who are the ones with all the power to communicate their lies and warped ideology.
That’s how it looks to me.
Snafu, I think that holds true for people looking to blogs for the inside stories they aren’t getting through the mainstream, but I don’t think it’s enough on its own to motivate someone to set up and run a blog.
To do a half-decent job requires a lot of time and dedication for no material reward so there has to be something else to make bloggers feel that it’s worth the effort, especially for people with other demands on their time.
Why does your website show this repeated several times:
Hell! Many thanks for pointing that out. I’m new to this blogging lark and normally use Firefox as a browser where it all looked fine. Just checked in MS IE and they’re all over the place. Hopefully all gone now. You may all now laugh at the noob.
If you’re talking about the stray horizontal bars the Bristol Blogger still shows them with IE so it’s not just noobs.
A good debate Felix.
You mention the large profit margins media groups pursued and (If I read it correct) rightly imply that this short term greed is a factor in their subsequent decline.
Then you say “but hacks also took their eye off the ball” – do you mean in the sense that papers continued to write for an audience that was disappearing? Your working class man on a bike?
I see your point but I think you need to differentiate between hacks, news eds, editors and news execs. Afterall, as a hack I wrote what I was told (or found) and often it was the stories that affected working class areas that were encouraged because that was where sales were highest.
Economically, concentating on attractive middle class readers might sound good but politically it seems to only widen the digital divide which already exists.
Still, that supposes that journalism as a wider social role to play than merely making profit.
Yes, I do mean papers still catered for a disappearing audience – and in some ways still do. Most local/regional papers still read as though they are aimed at socially conservative white people over the age of 50. Have you ever seen a group of city-dwelling schoolkids get on a bus in the morning and devour their free copies of Metro? I reckon you could give away the Post for free and it would still leave them cold.
Re concentrating on middle class readership, yes, it might increase social divisions, but we’re simply talking in terms here of whether or not local papers can survive at all. Personally, and I hope to expand this idea soon, I think it might be better to focus on what BristleKRS calls “engaged citizens”. But yeah, I’d like to think journalism has a wider social role. It’s nice to feel useful.
Dear Felix,
*Clapping Mouse*
Well done on your first post. I seriously do think allot of these issues around the media need to be out in the open and will never be printed in ad carrying press.
Being a mouse that has his feet in both the media and PR camps, even I have to admit being miffed by PR puff. It discredits the newspaper / media that use it and some of it is laughable. Take for instance the Bristol Evening Post recent statement that “Broadmead is the new Covent Garden” and you will know what I mean! (also happens to be a major advertiser)
However, the harsh facts that many media outlets would simply be unable to fill their pages without PR support and that many PRs (many who are ex journalists) do provide excellent copy and content.
The alternative is that we must all be prepared to pay (through the nose) for outstanding news content if we take PRs out of the equation.
In the abscence of this scenario the blog at least is a self regulating form of media where the PR puff stands to be shot down.
That can only be a good thing for democracy and balanced journalism.
Felix you have made it onto http://www.PRBristol.co.uk’s media over view page. So no excuses not to keep up the good work!
Media Mouse
Hi Mouse and thanks for joining in! Obviously PRs and journalists have a love/hate relationship born of a mutual interdependence that both sides occasionally find inconvenient or distasteful, so if we do manage to get a decent debate going in the coming weeks, your input – and that of any of your colleagues – will be greatly valued. As you rightly say, a lot of this won’t be talked about in the mainstream press – not locally anyway.
I agree with your penultimate paragraph – what we have at the moment is definitely the worst of both worlds.
I was amazed when I realised the amount of PR material that finds its way into our local papers, but what disappoints me most is the way local media, like the Post – the self-proclaimed paper for local people – have steadfastly ignored matters that local people really should know about, like Red Trouser Gate. The BBC has been no better in this particular respect, and as you say, is a lot worse in others. Local people don’t have a voice at the moment; it’s the Merchants, the vested interests, the council, the quangos, etc., that do.
But with our local media effectively gagged by vested interests, the corruption can continue almost unchallenged.
There’s certainly room for an alternative locally, and I look forward to the debate. Well done and good luck.
I think the point about the Metro is key. It’s not the art of reading that we’re losing but the art of providing the right content in a format that people want to consume.
There has been some debate within the NUJ about local media trusts or, as in France, government subsidies as an alternative business model for the local press.
Not sure about the latter, but the former has some merit although I’ve yet to delve too deeply into how it might work.
Regarding alternatives to the current ‘worst of both worlds’, one might be something along the lines of the new Huffington Post Investigative Fund:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/announcing-the-launch-of-_b_180543.html
Granted it would require bankrolling to the tune of thousands of pounds and I don’t know where the money would come from in our city, but it’s an example of how online news sources are attempting to bridge the gap between blogging (reblogging?) and good old fashioned investigative journalism.
Is this the worst of all possible worlds?
Ten years ago news in this city there was the BEP, the BBC on TV and radio and ITV local news. There was far less information and news out there than there is now.
Over the last few years we have had the BEP still doing a decentish job of general news gathering and a variety of independents – The Bristolian, Bristol Indymedia and more recently bloggers – doing the detail and the digging.
If the BEP goes, these years might seem like something of a golden age.
Of course, the elephant in the room in this discussion is the BBC. They’ve got all the resources but just seem to get public schoolboys to cut and paste press releases all day. What do they spend our money on?
They should be doing far more.
Hi Felix
Interested to see this on Kerry McCarthy’s website, we run a blog for Libertarians in Bristol and the South West.
http://swlibertarians.blogspot.com/
We try to put across a rejection of big State Solutions onto local issues.
Certainly would appreciate the opportunity to be part of this project.
“Granted it would require bankrolling to the tune of thousands of pounds and I don’t know where the money would come from in our city …”
No?
Surely there’s the odd progressive millionaire philanthropist and disinterested socialite available here in bristol?
Never be satisfied with enough – indocilis pauperiem pati an’ all that.
I for one and really pleased with the demise of the massive publishing corporation in Bristol, in the past a great deal of lies/slurs have been made against our magazine by people representing the established media in Bristol ie, implications we lie about the print run/that we are part of a much bigger organisation similar to Nothcliffe from the North east due to try and corner the local market, the most ludicrious of all being that we are only online and not even in print!!
I agree with your point. Why would someone pay for a magazine for any listings/events/reviews in Bristol when all this information can be accessed for free, http://www.bristollistings.com was launched (without advertising) at the same time as Crackerjack and we are growing steadily, we are a small family business and care enormously about this city, if only the ‘big boys’ would stop ‘bad mouthing us’ and some of the bigger companies in Bristol would get behind us!!!