Tuesday 31 May 2011

'Dying' regional press still has 10,000 journalists - more than any other medium, claims Harvey


There are still 10,000 journalists working in the regional press, according to Trinity Mirror Regional Newspapers' managing director Georgina Harvey as she hits back at claims the sector is doomed.

Interviewed by Ray Snoddy in the latest issue of InPublishing magazine, Harvey says of the regional press: "We have 87 publishers, 70 per cent reach in our markets and growing and we have more journalists on the ground, 10,000, than any other medium by a long way, yet apparently we are dying."

She also rejects claims that consolidation of the regional press by the big publishers means cutting journalists' jobs.

Harvey says of Trinity Mirror buying the Manchester Evening News, and related titles, from the Guardian Media Group last year: "Here is one fact. It gets my goat that it's supposed to be all about taking out costs. There are more, slightly more, journalists in the MEN newsroom today than there were a year ago."

Harvey is the first female newspaper executive to become president of the Newspaper Society.

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