The Last Post: Read this and weep for local press

Ex-Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson has written a terrific piece about the closure of the Chase Post by Trinity Mirror Midlands and its editor of more than 25 years Mike Lockley.

His article on HoldtheFrontPage looks at the huge economic problems facing newspapers, including a jump in newsprint prices, and concedes that the Chase Post was making heavy financial losses.

But Dyson really captures the character of a weekly with its own style and an outstanding editor that is at the heart of a community.

Reviewing, the last Post, he notes: There were "five pages of 50+ tributes that flooded in during the closure week – messages sent by everybody from ordinary readers to politicians, and from police chiefs to rock stars like Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple.

"But it was Lockley who best summed up how everyone was feeling as his page one message continued: 'We set out from the start to be the voice of this community. Judging by your kind words, we’ve succeeded. I intended to write a long tribute but you, the readers – the people that count – have beaten me to it'.”

Dyson ends with this plea: "We can only hope that someone, somewhere – perhaps without huge central costs and with no plc shareholders to please – might take a long, hard look at whether a locally owned Post with its great staff might still work.

Pic: HoldtheFrontPage

'Hold the front page...we're having a revamp'

Holdthe FrontPage, the website specialising in covering the regional press, has unveiled a smart new look - its first revamp in 11 years.

HTFP says an improved job search is key to the new-look platform with all jobs now searchable by region, keyword and sector as well as category at a new jobs board, HTFPJobs.

There is also a dedicated social networking and blogging platform, HTFPConnect, where journalists will be able to link up with old colleagues and college mates, and write their own blogs for the site.

The entire archive of 20,000-plus HoldtheFrontPage stories has been migrated across to the new WordPress-powered site.

HoldtheFrontPage publisher Paul Linford said: “The original version of HTFP which went live in February 2000 certainly stood the test of time but in the fast-changing world of digital publishing a redesign was long overdue.

“What we set out to deliver was a platform that provides a better showcase for our content, offers an improved service to jobseekers and employers, and introduces a new element of social networking and interactivity, and I hope we have managed to do that."

• HoldtheFrontPage was launched in February 2000by Northcliffe Electronic Publishing, now Northcliffe Digital, in Derby. The Newsquest publishing group acquired a 50% stake at the start of 2001. Trinity Mirror came on board in 2002 and Johnston Press joined the partnership in 2004.
  
• Despite being owned by the biggest regional publishers, HoldtheFrontPage maintains its editorial independence and shares something in common with all those covering the media: Newsquest chief executive Paul Davidson won't speak to them.
  

Vote for Hold the Front Page's Gaffe of the Year

HoldtheFrontPage is urging everyone to vote in its poll for the best (or should it be worst) Gaffe of the Year by a local newspaper or news website.

The Stratford Herald gets my vote after a sub's jokey "grovelling up their bottoms" headline about a local venue made it into print, followed by an apology blaming it on a "gremlin attack".

Chris Bullivant buys Observer Standard Newspapers group from administrators

The Observer Standard Newspapers group, founded by free newspaper entrepreneur Chris Bullivant, has been bought out of administration, HoldtheFrontPage reports today.
It has been sold for an undisclosed sum to Bullivant Media Limited, a company associated with Bullivant, previously chairman of Observer Standard Newspapers.
Bullivant told me: "I'm delighted that we will be able to look after our people. It has been horrible for them worrying about the next pay day." He said he will have to look at some rationalisation across the new company.
Observer Standard Newspapers was founded by Bullivant in 1989 and publishes weeklies, magazines and websites. It was put into administration last month. It is understood that a major regional publisher also put in a bid to the administrators.
Bullivant last month broke ranks with the big regional newspaper companies by putting in a submission to the Office of Fair Trading arguing against a relaxation of the media merger rules as applied to the local press. He claimed such a move would lead to the regional press being dominated by two giant groups.

'Awful, disgusting, farce, appalling, cobblers, deplorable, hypocrites!'...the verdict on Northcliffe's new subbing hubs

Northcliffe's plan to centralise subbing in Nottingham and Hull for its daily newspapers in the East Midlands, threatening 50 jobs (see posting below), has not gone down well.
How do I know this? I looked at comments on the HoldtheFrontPage website, which is run and part owned by Northcliffe. Here are a sample:
Disgusted, of Derby: "I can't believe the Derby Evening Telegraph plans to get rid of its sub-editors by making half of them redundant and shipping those that remain to a centralised subbing pool over the border in Shottingham. Isn't this the same newspaper that ran it's "Hoot" campaign only a few months ago to keep Inland Revenue jobs in Derby instead of sending them down the A52? And now the DET plans to do exactly the same! HYPOCRITES! This would be funny were it not such a farce."
Brenda :I think this is disgusting!
Lis Gibbs: This is an awful decision. I am appalled.
Carmel Harrison: This is appalling. Centralised subbing never works. How can regional titles retain their integrity when management are doing things like this?
All Subbed Out: So in the opinion of Northcliffe, its own motto 'At The Heart Of All Things Local' does not necessarily include having pages subbed by anyone with any decent local knowledge of the area, just someone within 100 miles who might vaguely have heard of some of the places, people and communities being written about. Anyone care to bet against Northcliffe's next step being outsourcing to 'local' production centres in Delhi?
Cadmus: They've obviously been listening to Roy Greenslade
Mr_Osato: How will 'Editors... be fully responsible for their titles to preserve the local identity of the newspapers and websites' when they're not where the papers are being put together. Or maybe the editors are being centralised as well? Whichever way, it's cobblers. What little local flavour newspapers have is slowly being stripped away by the McNewspaper groups, with these 'centres of mediocrity' a prime example
diana peasey: Surely, this immediately undermines the quality of journalism, undermines the credibility of papers by not eliminating spelling mistakes and grammer, nor double checking that a story is balanced and not open to defamation. Or does that not count these days?
Dead ringer: Utter tosh, the whole thing. Again, all the top jobs will be protected, and the poor subs bear the brunt of everything. How is anyone going to move from Lincoln to Hull, for example? And I agree with earlier post. How are eds going to maintain the standards if they are elsewhere? And if they are in Hull, how are they going to know what is going on in their own patch? Deplorable, but sadly inevitable. Mind, I wager there'll still be the same management structure. Can't lose chiefs, can we!!

Redundant editor launches local news website

Is this the future? HoldtheFrontPage reports today that a local newspaper editor who took redundancy has launched a community news website on his old patch.
David Jackman, who now works in NHS communications, was editor of the Epping Forest Guardian, Harlow and Bishop's Stortford Citizens and the Epping Forest Independent but left in October after 21 years with the titles.
He has now launched everythingeppingforest.co.uk. which features major news stories as well as grassroots community news which Jackman told HTFP he believes some titles are now neglecting. Maybe it's a model some other redundant local journalists will follow.

Hark The Herald pay freeze

Allmediascotland reports today that staff at The Herald group in Scotland have been told their pay review is to be frozen from January to April. It is a move similar to that announced by The Scotsman group.
Meanwhile in Ireland, the NUJ says that staff at Independent Newspapers (Ireland) have been offered a "shares for pay cut" deal.
In Wales, HoldtheFrontPage reported yesterday that four reporters at two West Wales weeklies have agreed to sacrifice pay to prevent a fellow journalist being made redundant. Newsquest wanted one redundancy from the seven-strong reporting team which produces the Milford Mercury and Western Telegraph. But the threatened job loss appears to have been averted after four reporters agreed to an equal cut in hours on the condition they all remained in their posts.

Cumbria jobs toll will hit 40 and 11 posts under threat at Johnston Press in Northern Ireland

HoldtheFrontPage reports today that Cumbria-based CN Group, publisher of the North West Evening Mail and News & Star, has increased the number of proposed job cuts from 30 to 40.
It is expected that 27 of these will go at CN's Carlisle HQ and a further 13 at its subsidiary Furness Newspapers Limited, based in Barrow. CN chief executive Robin Burgess told HTFP: "On the basis of the situation continuing to be dire, we had to propose further cuts."
HTFP also reports today that Johnston Press has confirmed that 11 editorial jobs are at risk as a result of plans to centralise subbing operations across its Northern Irish titles at Craigavon and cut 11 posts. Titles affected by the change are said to include The News Letter, Derry Journal, Donegal Democrat and a number of other weekly papers.
A posted comment on HTFP under the CN Group job cuts story demonstrates the black humour journalists are famous for. It says simply: "New definition of optimism. A newspaper journalist ironing 5 shirts on a Sunday night!!!"