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• 12.14.08
  I suspect the time will soon draw nigh for the Newspaper Society to march on Whitehall. And if it’s with caps in hand, what are you actually going to say? General, Journalism | (1)

  Earlier this year Lord Fowler and his House of Lords colleagues published a report on the future ownership of the news - a worthy and, no doubt, genuine bid by central Government to try and get a grip on where the UK media industry was heading. Given the state of this Media Nation of ours six months later, it is worth a re-visit if only to remind ourselves of what the Newspaper Society had to tell their lordships; Point 58, if anyone wishes to go and dust off a copy... “The evidence we received from the Newspaper Society, which represents the regional ...

  Tagged: Clay Shirky, Lord Fowler, Newspaper Society, TrinityMirror
  
• 08.19.08
  TrinityMirror head for the hills and plant their final flag atop Fort Dunlop; in their fleeing wake lie 65 jobs and a weekly wasteland… General, Journalism, MFW | (8)

  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 ...

  Tagged: Lord Fowler, MyLocalWriter, Project Stamford, TrinityMirror
  
• 07.04.08
  TrinityMirror meet Johnston Press; Johnston meet Trinity Mirror. And watch how the geography works… General, Journalism | (0)

  For obvious reasons, this fascinates me... And apologies about being a couple of days out-of-date; blame www.2gether08.com - and fair play to Mr Steve Moore for organising said event. But anyway, the suggestion that TrinityMirror and Johnston would be best advised throwing their hand in together... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sharewatch/market-report-broker-moots-merger-of-trinity-and-johnston-858351.html Or more particularly... "ABN Amro said that, given the problems faced by the media sector, "shareholders and management will increasingly press for industry consolidation". "These are desperate times, and they call for desperate measures: we believe a Trinity/Johnston combination makes sense," ABN said. "The geographical fit is no 'dream ticket', but Trinity has an urban bias, while Johnston ...

  Tagged: Clay Shirky, geography, Johnston Press, Lord Fowler, TrinityMirror
  
• 06.30.08
  Read the TrinityMirror news today and the words ‘upbeat’ and ‘very’ wouldn’t be the first two to spring to mind. Misc | (0)

  Given events that are fast befalling TrinityMirror today... http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=41543&c=1 and, of course, here... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/30/trinitymirror.pressandpublishing and here... http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/06/trinity_mirror_the_end_is_nigh.html ... you do have to wonder just how that all sits with the Newspaper Society's 'very upbeat' view of the world. The best line came from Citi Investment Research. "The advertising environment remains volatile and there is no sign of the classified market bottoming yet," they warned. "While the new bank facility gives some comfort on the capital structure near term we believe the pension will remain a cause for concern in the longer term. We remain sellers." We remain sellers... Just don't ask Lord Fowler to buy it. �

  Tagged: Lord Fowler, TrinityMirror
  
• 06.28.08
  Why Lord Fowler and Co have little to say by way of succour for an ailing provincial newspaper industry. General, Journalism | (4)

  Give the walk we walk and the talk we try to talk, it would be wholly remiss not to give Lord Fowler's epic work a mention. The House of Lords' report on 'The Ownership Of The News', Vol 1, is clearly a worthy document and for those of you with a couple of hours to spare, here's the full monty in PDF form... http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldcomuni/122/122i.pdf Given the number of influential people that Lord Fowler and friends managed to drag before it, the conclusions that they ultimately reached are, to my mind, likely to stay entrenched within the mind-set of their lordships at least until ...

  Tagged: House Of Lords, Johnston Press, Lord Fowler, OfCom, Peter Kirwan, Sly Bailey, Stamford Herald & Post, Stamford Mercury, TrinityMirror
  

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