Thursday 2 July 2009

'The end of local journalism is here!'

Couldn't ignore this passionate posting on HoldtheFrontPage which lays into the Trinity Mirror managementspeak contained in its announcement that nine Midlands weeklies are to close and two titles in Solihull are to merge. (See Trinity cuts in Midlands worse than feared below)
Dreading the future posts:"This story curdles my blood, and not just because of the job losses, which are sickening. George Orwell (remember Newspeak in 1984) would have had a field day with "the two titles will in future be run by a combined editorial content-gathering team". For heaven's sake! You make them sound like farm labourers at harvest time. And it's a total delight to discover that proper professional photographers are no longer wanted in the Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) of 21st century journalism. Much better to send out a junior "news-gatherer" with a notebook (or should it be a recorder now) in one hand, a digi camera on the other to collect second-rate happy snaps and a video-recorder strapped to his/her head. I'm glad I'm out of it. The end of local journalism - interesting and informative reports written by well-trained and supervised reporters in their own patch -is nigh. Apologies, it's here already."

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