Category Archives: regional

Marc Reeves: Three things I’ll miss about newspapers – and three things I won’t

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Marc Reeves on the conservatism of newspaper management - and journalists: "The most senior managers in most newspaper groups achieved their positions at a time when the world was certain, definable and predictable. The model was 150 years old and still going strong. Nothing – but nothing – in their experience equipped them to anticipate or create change, unless it was to manage decline and cut costs during one of the periodical and predictable cyclical economic downturns. ... The certainty that the [NUJ] would oppose any change has only helped confirm change-averse managers in their own conservatism."

Marc Reeves: Three things I’ll miss about newspapers – and three things I won’t

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Marc Reeves on the conservatism of newspaper management - and journalists: "The most senior managers in most newspaper groups achieved their positions at a time when the world was certain, definable and predictable. The model was 150 years old and still going strong. Nothing – but nothing – in their experience equipped them to anticipate or create change, unless it was to manage decline and cut costs during one of the periodical and predictable cyclical economic downturns. ... The certainty that the [NUJ] would oppose any change has only helped confirm change-averse managers in their own conservatism."

Comment is free: Why journalism needs paywalls

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Tim Luckhurst: "Today a newspaper innovation is launched that can help the free world's news industry to recover the prosperity it first achieved under Queen Victoria. Johnston Press, Britain's most prolific newspaper publisher with 286 titles, will place the online content of six of its local titles behind paywalls." Seriously?

Press Gazette: The Wire: Johnston Press to introduce paywalls next week

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Commenter on Presss Gazette neatly sums up the case against paywalls for general news: "I'll save everybody time and angst. This model was tried before by many newspapers. Here's what happened. Pay wall goes up; traffic drops like a rock. Advertisers want new cheaper ad rates for low traffic figures. Audience goes elsewhere. Management freaks. Paywall comes down. Audience still elsewhere. Advertising rates are now rock bottom. Its a dead end proposition."

Comment is Free: I, too, mourn good local newspapers. But this lot just aren’t worth saving

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George Monbiot: "Like my colleagues, I mourn [local papers'] death; unlike them I believe it happened decades ago. For many years the local press has been one of Britain's most potent threats to democracy, championing the overdog, misrepresenting democratic choices, defending business, the police and local elites from those who seek to challenge them. Media commentators lament the death of what might have been. It bears no relationship to what is."

New York Times: Politico’s Creators Plan Local News Web Site for Washington

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"Allbritton Communications said its new operation would start with a newsroom of about 50 people — far larger than those of other local news start-ups around the country, though still smaller than the local news staffs of major metropolitan newspapers. ... Robert L. Allbritton, who heads the family-owned company, and [Jim] Brady said they had concluded that the venture had to be done on a large scale or not done at all — essentially the same premise that accompanied the founding of Politico."

HTFP: Court ruling ‘clarifies law on user-generated content’

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"As soon as Newsquest received the legal claim from Mr Karim, the readers' comments were removed from the websites concerned. Mr Justice Eady concluded that Newsquest websites were acting as hosts of the reader comments for the purposes of Regulation 19 of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 and therefore would not be liable for any damages even if the material was unlawful."

Birmingham Post: Why the Birmingham Post must change

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Marc Reeves: "I believe the weekly model is the best option for the Post. There's a lot of emotion connected to the supposed status of being a daily paper and many of my contacts in the city regularly state baldly to me that 'Birmingham simply must have a daily business paper'. But at what cost? Increasingly, our diet of daily and immediate news is fed by online services and broadcast media, and newspapers have a much reduced role in bringing news we didn't hear first somewhere else. Papers are increasingly more about providing analysis, comment and insight. I believe that should be the role of the Post in print - to explain and examine the big decisions and issues in the region, while keeping readers up to date with the immediate through our website and other online services."