On the same day the Lord Leveson inquiry opened this week, it was announced that three more local newspapers are to close and 45 journalists' jobs are being cut by Trinity Mirror Midlands.
A survey of members of the Society of Editors estimated this week that editorial staff had been cut by 29% since 2007.
If only the same amount of resources being put into the Leveson Inquiry could be spent on looking at ways to help the local press, which has never had anything to do with phone hacking, to survive and adapt to a digital future without this massive destruction of journalists' jobs.
I've written an article for TheMediaBriefing saying the events of this week support the views of former regional editor Neil Fowler, now Guardian Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, that what really matters in newspapers right now is the financial state of the local press.
I think that journalism has got far too embedded in academia for its own good.
ReplyDeleteIt is all talk of ethics,data journalism,digital tools,conferences about the future of journalism whilst the business model for the industry is dying Jon.
One day we will wake up and there will be no industry left but at least when that happens we won't have to keep going to all the conferences about it