Out With A Bang

Cards on the table first. I’m not an NUJ member.

My Mrs, however, is. And as a part-time sub-editor at Archant (Norfolk), given events at Archant (Suffolk) she – along with 100s of others across the UK and the US – is firmly on the endangered species list.

As, of course, are 65 souls across Trinity Mirror’s Midlands stables…

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/08/trinity_mirror_leads_the_way_t.html

Where the axe will exactly fall remains to be seen; but having been through a one-in-three redundancy process on the sports and subs desks at Archant two years ago, I would suspect that is where the brunt of the ‘action’ will be.

But as the NUJ prepares to unfurl its battle flag once more, there has to come a point when it needs to recognise it might be fighting a lost cause. The provincial newspaper industry is broken beyond repair.

Period; end of.

And given that my Mrs is likely to be at the sharp end of a similar bout of blood-letting at Archant Towers in the none-too distant future, I don’t say any of the above lightly.

There are 100s of decent, hard-working journalists out there whose lives are about to be sacrificed on the altar of corporate short-termism. My Mrs and our own domestic finances included.

And, of course, fight for their rights for a decent pay-off; to be treated with dignity and respect.

But, at some stage soon, there has to be a recognition that the Web poses such a fundamental challenge to the way that local newspapers go about their business that – maybe – TrinityMirror, Archant, Johnston, NewsQuest and Co could have never paid out a penny by way of a shareholder dividend over the last ten years and they would still be staring over the edge of an abyss.

Why? Geography.

The web doesn’t do geography as represented – and religiously plundered – by the old circulation fiefdoms enjoyed by local newspapers.

You can throw as many millions as you want into Archant’s digital operations; you can train your staff for hours on end into how to be this Web-savvy, all-Pod-casting, all Vid-casting, multi-media hub hero, but when the fact of the matter remains that you can’t deliver either local advertising or local news content out of Bury St Edmunds or Diss because that’s someone else’s ‘patch’, you’re f*cked.

I ‘the former audience’ can, however, find a second-hand bike in Bury off e-Bay; I can find a flat to rent off Craig’s List, a car to buy off AutoTrader, a house to sell off RightMove, etc, etc… as I can in Market Harborough, Kettering, Stamford and every other town and village across Middle England.

And how’s a nationwide NUJ ‘Day Of Action’ ever going to change that?

It’s not.

The Web demands scale.

It smashes local monpolies into a million and one little pieces; pieces that the NUJ are never, ever going to be able to piece back together again.

And, nor, you suspect will Sly Bailey and Co. The retreat into Fort Dunlop is actually doing little more than tightening the geographical noose around Trinity’s neck.

Even if every last remaining Birmingham title goes deadline-free, they are never going to be geography-lite; that’s why Trinity ought to be commended for taking those first tentative steps down the ‘Banter’ path; they are, at least, trying to lose the geography.

No. For me, Mr Dear and Co have to move on, where next? Who next?

Go and batter down the doors of OfCom, NESTA, the regional devlopment agencies, etc, etc… in a bid to improve the funding allocations for the next generation of web networks; journalism is going back to a cottage industry – right, demand grants for that new-born cottage industry…

The days of the mill owners and the provincial Press barons are over; their demise could – some claim – be little more than months away.

You are not going to change the way that corporate beast works in the little time that’s left to them.

If you still don’t want to abandon your members to their fate, fair enough. But start to think about abandoning the owners’ fate to their’s.

Move on. Talk to people like James Rudd and his fledgling efforts with www.aboutmyarea.co.uk – what’s his needs? How can the NUJ help him to thrive and, above all, survive?

I’ve been here two years; employ two working, full-time journalists out of www.myfootballwriter.com/ipswichtown and www.myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity and I’ve not heard a peep from the NUJ…

How’s it going, Rick? What sort of challenges have you faced? How have you found funding? What sort of working conditions do Mark and Nick face? Go and speak to them…

How can we help? You’re trying to give our members a future, how can we help…

That’s the conversation you should be having. And you’re not.

For me, you’re still intent on fighting – and losing – yesterday’s wars. Cos you won’t beat the Web when it comes to geography. As won’t Trinity, Archant, etc…

So move on. Start fighting some battles that you can win – with Government, with OfCom, with NESTA; engage on behalf of the next generation of network platforms; people who are fighting tooth and nail with the banks, with VCs, etc, etc to give your members a chance.

Of course, journalism matters. That’s why me, James, Nick, Mark, Tim (Hood), Kyle, etc, etc are all out here… trying to do our bit.

Now it’s about time you did yours. For us.

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