Yesterday wasn’t a ‘good news’ day for Johnston Press; property advertising displaying a 50% fall, etc, etc…
And nor did today’s interim statement by Trinity Mirror offer much by way of good news, either.
Meanwhile, even DMGT were forced to reach for the red-marker pen and slash 300 jobs from their various London titles and operations.
If anyone wanted to see what a forest fire looked like, this is probably it. And 2009 doesn’t promise to be any better. In fact, it promises to be ‘challenging’ according to the Trinity Mirror suits.
Johnston Press also rolled out their No1 suit today, Tim Bowdler – the out-going chief executive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/12/johnston-press-tim-bowdler
In calling for a relaxation in the rules governing consolidation, Bowdler called on the Government, the OFT, OfCom and Co to recognise the new media landscape… just as Sly Bailey did in Bristol where she, too, championed the cause of plurality and diversity in the local and regional market-place.
“It’s important that not only politicians understand why that should be so but also regulators recognise that until now the market definition they have tended to use has been extraordinarily narrow,” said Bowdler.
“It has excluded any recognition of other media in our marketplace. It’s not realistic and it’s not a reflection of the competitive environment as it stands today.”
And yet anyone who dares to recognise the fact that the BBC might, perhaps, think that putting one, extra video journalist into South Yorkshire towards the end of 2009 might be a reasonable move – particularly as Johnston Press abandon their district offices in Barnsley and Rotherham, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/03/johnstonpress.nationalunionofjournalists – is hurled from the nearest mountain top.
It’s ‘unfair’ competition; they have no right to be there. We’re there…
But you’re not. You’re leaving.
And, besides, how can you trumpet the need for plurality and diversity on the one hand and yet man the barricades against the BBC on the other?
And, for me, this is where someone needs to start banging heads together in a bid to find a new line… cos it doesn’t work. Bowdler on the BBC…
“It’s utterly inappropriate for public money to be used to do something where there’s no evidence of market failure and where commercial enterprises are investing heavily to build these services,” he said.
Forget where my licence fee goes, what wholly undermines the argument is this insistence that ‘there’s no evidence of market failure…’
Er… excuse me?
Who, exactly, is that contention designed to re-assure? The City? As of 9am this morning, Johnston Press shares were trading at 17p – that’s a 92% fall in the last 52 weeks.
They’ve made their judgement. They’re out of there. Because, maybe, they’ve seen evidence of ‘market failure’ and run…
If it’s for the staff’s benefit…
Likewise, admit there’s a real shift going on; that your woes are not solely down to an unprecedented downturn in the economy – however traumatic that downturn is fast proving. There’s something else going on here.
That there are – and have been – fundamental structural challenges to your business that you have yet to wholly address. From the very moment that some geeky bloke in a San Fransisco suburb thought: ‘You know what, I’m going to launch an on-line classified ads service… and what’s more, I’m going to make it free… a list… Craig’s List…’ you were in trouble.
“The predominant influence is undoubtedly cyclical. When you look at property advertising halving, that has nothing to do with a structural impact, it’s absolutely the consequence of difficulties in the property market,” Bowdler added.
RightMove, PrimeLocation, Craig’s List…. it’s as if they have never happened.
For the provincial newspaper industry this is their biggest challenge; to actually, publically, concede that there’s something cold and wet lapping at their ankles… to stop with the King Canutes and call for a towel.
A touch of humility in the face of unprecedented adversity is a lesson we all need to learn.
Myself included.
Regarding Barnsley and Rotherham, both towns are home to long established and well regarded weekly papers and their associated websites – and I have not read that these titles intend to pack up. Therefore, your contention that only the BBC and expenditure of further public money can guarantee any local news gathering at these locations is quite simply wrong. Instead, your comments highlight once again the problem with the BBC plan. The Corporation proposals offer nothing distinct and only serve to distort local markets with public cash.
Michael,
Irrespective of how long any of us believe that both venerable weekly papers have got, my contention isn’t that ‘only’ the BBC and expenditure of further public money can guarantee any local news gathering at these locations… my contention is that in amidst the ‘plurality’ of voices that, apparently, both both Bowdler and Bailey are all for, the BBC should be allowed to add one more ‘local’ video journalist to that South Yorkshire mix… because I honestly don’t understand how anyone can claim adding one more body to the bottom half of Yorkshire is going to ‘distort’ anything. The web is the great distorting factor; why is it so abhorrent for both weekly titles to simply supplement their local video coverage by ‘linking’ to the BBC and vice versa… our Barnsley mags’ court reports for your [occasional] Barnsley video clip? And the problem is? Likewise I have long contended that the growing army of local bloggers can equally service local news gathering needs – once their efforts can find some kind of organisational structure and, albeit pocket money, financial reward…
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