Out With A Bang

Not for the first time, I defer to Pete Kirwan and his analysis of how the local newspaper ad market is currently faring.

http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/mediamoney/2010/08/13/ad-revenue-recovery-different-strokes-for-different-folks/

Quite what term anyone would use in the PR corridors of Trinity, Johnston, Archant et al to describe such 4% YOY declines is another matter; ‘robust’ is often thrust to the fore… as in ‘a robust performance in the face of the on-going tough economic conditions…’ That kind of thing.

Me? I think ‘wary’ would be my choice adjective for this moment in time; wary of just what the autumn ’spending’ review might bring in the current climate as one minister after another lines up to demonstrate his cutting credentials…

One almost needs to employ a Murray Walker commentary kit as you run through those that have already fallen victim to the axe… ‘And *there* goes the Audit Commission… And *there* goes 400 jobs from the COI… and *there* goes 40% budget cuts at the DCMS…’ etc etc.

The local newspaper groups – OK, read the PaidContent piece on Northcliffe earlier this summer – initially appeared calm in the face of any impending public sector storm…

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-dmgts-regional-arm-poised-to-return-to-profit-as-it-plots-150-app-launc/

Here we go: ‘The DMGT chief executive, Martin Morgan, told journalists and analysts yesterday that public sector ad spend accounted for about 3% of total business to consumer revenues and within that, 7% to 8% of revenues at the Northcliffe Media regional newspaper division.

“This equates to a total public sector ad spend of about £18m, with about £10m spent on Northcliffe Media titles, according to revenue figures published by DMGT yesterday.

“Local media should move into year-on-year revenue growth in the second half of the year,” said Morgan, adding that it would take something “very major to blow us off course” from achieving that prediction.

“Government-related advertising is actually a small part of overall advertising, we are not a major recipient of government spending.”

That, of course, was May.

Come August and DMGT’s latest forecasts are rich with a wariness of just where this Government is taking us… suddenly a return to growth does not look so certain; so much is up in the air..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/30/dmgt-too-bullish-regional-papers

And, in particular, this line: “There is a lot more uncertainty on what might happen in the medium term. With austerity measures the unknown is spending impact…”

OK, let’s return to a familiar hobby horse… statutory planning applications and local government notices that the Newspaper Society continue to insist *must* remain within the pages of the local newspaper.

Otherwise, of course, local councils might hide them away in unseen corners of their own websites and threaten the very fabric of local democracy.

Hence the Society’s delight late last year when the then Government upheld the current statutory demand on local councils to pump £15 million into the classified sections of the local newspaper…

http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/blog/index.php/2009/12/23/government-rejects-plans-to-scrap-planning-notice-advertising

Objecting, were 76 local planning authorities; and it is interesting if you head for their site, the views from the other side of the planning fence:

http://www.planningofficers.org.uk/file/e0bf5fef4dec706be5314027d3a7f93b/society-slams-dclg-decision-not-to-dispense-with-the-need-for-newspaper-publicity-of-planning-applications.html

And, in particular, this line: “Phil Kirby, the Society’s Immediate Past President, said “web publication of notices is a good thing and we are all going to be made to do it; but it’s not that good, as we are still going to have to duplicate the requirement by also using a newspaper…”

But this is the point… and it is *not* about trying to drive another nail into the coffin of regional newspapers; I have 14 years worth of pension lodged with Archant; it is *not* in my interest to go and see them meet their maker.

But in a very short while, there are district councils right across this land who are going to have to make some *very* painful decisions when it comes to their spending.

Big decisions that will hit people’s every day lives.

And this is where the Newspaper Society has got to get *very* creative in its defence of statutory planning actions and notices still being installed in the back pages of its *print* product at an on-going cost to both the local council and – us – the local council tax payers.

Because what do I want? Two cleaners at the local OAP day centre to keep their job? Or the Rotherham Advertiser to be kept in local planning applications?

And if I’m the editor of the Rotherham Advertiser and I’m going full tilt slamming the local council for withdrawing lollipop ladies, closing local libraries, cutting back on home help provision and the 2,001 other activities that we expect our local council to provide how does that sit with the claim that *only* putting council planning applications online is such a dire threat to civil democracy in South Yorkshire? 

And where will Mr Pickles sit in all this? Election success bagged, ‘local’ TV reviews smashed into the long grass of late 2012, where is he going to sit in all this?

For me, clinging on to planning app revenues as if their life depended on it simply demonstrates the need to let go…. it’s gone; the web and her ability to open up and free such data has killed the goose that used to lay those golden eggs.

In the current climate – as austerity bites ever deeper into those front-line services we hold dear – defending your right to demand payment for printed, planning application advertising isn’t a winner.

It doesn’t wash. 

I want a lollipop lady outside my lad’s school; frankly, I’ll take my chances on whether or not South Norfolk District Council hide the planning application for a second floor extension to the semi in Conifers Lane…