I love a good “…is dead” blog post. More often than not, it’s exaggerated at best. But the death of the local newspaper? Methinks that’s a little too realistic for comfort.
It’s a much discussed possibility and it has been for years. Jason Vallery did a monstrous post about it over a year ago, arguing that as the consumers take more and more of their news online, local news becomes under-represented:
“The world around me, around where I live, isn’t well represented online. I want to be able to access my local news just like I access the rest of my news. I want to be informed about what is going on without spending unnecessary time on it.”
Clearly Jason isn’t the type to pop out and grab a newspaper, calling it (technically correctly) the “dead tree” version. But he’s far from the only commentator looking at the future of the local rag with a great deal of doubt.
The main problem, as far as my PR-trained but news business virgin brain can tell, is that for whatever reason (insert comments about quality of journalism and levels of investment here) some circulations are plummeting.
This, obviously, leads to job cuts, and when job cuts start to take hold you kinda know something’s borked.
I commented about the differences between bloggers and print journalists on Kerry’s post about getting the media we deserve, but I don’t think bloggers generally want a world sans local (print) newspapers.
Which brings me onto Gary’s post on the death of local newspapers.
Gary certainly doesn’t want the seemingly inevitable to happen – he has superb knowledge of the industry and no little affection for it. But he recognises the problems faced by local newspapers and states, correctly in my view, that there may be no choice:
“But, even if it is a desperate last throw of the dice, what does a paper have to lose if it tries it? Not that I’d want to see papers disappear from their communities, but if it’s a choice between online-only news and no news at all… “
Gary’s views have been endorsed today by Roy Greenslade, and it was a comment on Roy’s blog post which got me thinking about just how far away we are from online-only local newspapers. Because it’s inevitable (right?).
“EricMorecambe” says that “The first breed of ‘online only’ regional or national ‘newspapers’ are surely just a matter of weeks or months away.”
Indeed, the Liverpool Daily Post has already binned its Saturday edition, and Trinty Mirror has also made some rather interesting changes in the Midlands, including closures in Derbyshire.
Does this mean the local newspaper industry will have to change or die?
There’s a precedent in other areas. PC Magazine is going digital-only and Christian Science Monitor is breaking new ground by taking a national-reach newspaper online.
Another Greenslade comment, by “Zeds”, points out that there is a huge difference between print and online newspaper advertising revenue potential.
I also think there’s a quiet demographic which is entirely comfortable with the physical artefact, the actual newspaper. They shouldn’t be forgotten.
But “EricMorecambe” is not saying the local/regional newspaper is dead, just that the first breed of fully-online papers is imminent. I don’t think he’s far off.
(Photo: Dorset Life)
blogs, media, newspapers
I think *some* local newspapers will survive in print, a few will make a successful transition to online and others, sadly, will cease to exist, possibly amalgamated into a paper covering a larger area (resulting in a drop for ultralocal news in print).
It also depends on the audience and the area. If it’s an elderly audience who aren’t online, then it doesn’t make sense to ditch print. But, on the other hand, they may not have an option. It’s a really tough squeeze from all sides and probably needs some really creative thinking from somebody high up.
Thanks for the comment, Gary.
I think one thing that’s lacking from a lot of the wider debate on this is exactly that point: us London ‘eads are slightly overlooking the ‘local’.
As much as we don’t like it (and I except you from this, given your work history), we can’t speak for Bournemouth or Exeter or Liverpool or Birmingham. To us, the newspapers there are measured only by numbers. We have little idea of the cultural and sentimental impact of the local titles.
Sure, we can equate them to the impact of our local papers from Christmas past, but if each one is different then we’re often going to be wide of the mark.
Seen this article from the FT?
Sure did, Mat. I was working on a list post for SIF late last week and picked up John’s post.
In the words of a sensationalist sports reporter, this one’s gonna run and run.