An hour after writing the post below and out of the darkness that is the UK provincial newspaper industry comes this…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/19/trinitymirror.pressandpublishing
…65 jobs to go; and more to follow if they can’t find a buyer for their clutch of weekly titles…
Several lines stand out… not least this one: Trinity Mirror’s three Birmingham titles will be served by a single sports desk at the new multimedia facility…
Bang go the seperate title football writers that used to follow the Blues and the Baggies; one man from the Mail, the other from the Post. One man will be left to do the job of two… media will become that much scarcer; that the St Andrews Press box will – like its Carrow Road counterpart – have a couple more empty seats come Christmas…
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=124
How the poor lad that’s then left – or, indeed, lass – will then fare servicing three titles and a 24/7 rolling football news [Update: 20/08/08; see comments, but Birmingham Banter is not a '24/7' rolling football news platform... which is a shame, IMHO... having taken one step down a bold path, take the next...] platform that is www.birminghambanter.co.uk is an interesting question; as is the provincial newspaper industry’s ‘upbeat’ assessment to Lord Fowler’s House of Lords commission… remember that?
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=99
And then there’s this…
“In addition to the radical overhaul of its Birmingham and Coventry publishing operations, Trinity Mirror is also looking to dispose of several weekly paid-for and free titles from its Midlands business.
“These include its four free weekly newspaper titles in Northampton: the Northampton Herald & Post; Wellingborough, Rushden, Kettering and Corby Herald & Post; Market Harborough Herald & Post; and the Brackley & Towcester Herald & Post. The other titles affected are its two paid-for weeklies in Long Eaton – the Long Eaton Advertiser and Nu News – and its free title in that area, Long Eaton Trader…
And this is from an industry that – every time the BBC’s local video proposals are mentioned – insists that there is absolutely no need for the Beeb to park a 22-year-old with a hand-held camera on its lawn because such local communities are already perfectly well-served…
… which is worth reminding the good people of Market Harborough, Rushden, Kettering, Long Eaton, Towcester, Corby and Wellingborough as their ‘local’ publisher retreats up the A14 and parks itself in Fort Dunlop – a particularly apt fastness given that the enemy is clearly now at Trinity’s gates and is leaving a weekly wasteland across vast swathes of Middle England.
Time to dust off ‘Project Stamford’, me thinks…
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=75
Only now we could add www.mylocalwriter.com/marketharborough, www.mylocalwriter.com/wellingborough www.mylocalwriter.com/kettering etc to our list of ‘jobs to do’…
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It does make you wonder if people will see opportunity in such times, there will be a lot of names in those redundant address books.
Do not fear Towcester and Brackley I am here. Have been running this website as a local daily newspaper for just over a year.
http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/nn12
Here you go, Craig…
Three cheers for James Rudd and http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/nn12 – the first of, hopefully, many green shoots to pop up in Trinity’s departing wake…
[...] – Paul Groves gives his reaction to the announcement on his blog. – Rick Waghorn comments on the job losses. – Roy Greenslade says he understands why the changes are happening, although he takes no pleasure [...]
Rick – point of clarification. Birmingham Banter is not a 24 hour rolling news platform
David,
Point clarified; thanks.
But you can guess what my point to you would then be… (!)
NuNews communities in the Castle Donington area should also fear not as daily local news is available online.
(Sorry to duplicate – spot the error)
http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/de74
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