Total Politics 2010 Election Map

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In an emergency: Press

 

Sarah MacKinlay

 

Plummeting advertising revenues and collapsing circulations undermine the network of local newspapers that are a vital component of local life. Sarah MacKinlay reports

 

 

The crisis which has engulfed regional and local newspapers hit with such speed and ferocity that a public display of anger at the loss to communities never emerged. But the crisis is no less real for all that. With advertising and profits plummeting and circulations collapsing, newspaper groups are rationalising their local operations, making reporters redundant, closing some smaller titles, shutting regional offices and gathering journalists into news hubs that can be scores of miles from the areas they are covering.

 

All this matters not just because of the loss of a service that is vital for local people who want to know what is happening in their area, but even more importantly because of the implications for local democracy. As the Observer columnist Henry Porter points out: "All news starts off local. Without reporters dropping into a court case, pestering the manager of an NHS trust, sitting through an inquest or badgering the local bobbies, democracy and accountability in Britain would not be possible."

 

But providing a comprehensive local news service is expensive, and major owners of local newspapers including Guardian Media Group (GMG), Trinity Mirror and Johnston Press say that advertising revenues are so poor that the current situation cannot be sustained.

 

So far, GMG has managed to avoid closing any of its 20-plus local titles, but there have been sacrifices. The group has had to consolidate all staff into one central office in Manchester. The problem with this ambitious programme of restructuring, critics argue, is that providing quality journalism with integrity is hindered because journalists lose focus.

 

Peter Devine is political editor of the Stockport Express. He says: "Moving political reporting out of areas such as Stockport will leave a huge vacuum, one which will be filled by dumbed-down, out-of-touch coverage by out-of-town reporters. Our newspaper has proved that readers are looking for publications which provide them with a voice, and that is why we have a circulation increase against a backdrop of massive falls in the weekly and regional press."

 

At a local level, politics is very precise, and only a journalist with knowledge of an area, and an understanding of its politics, will get the story. Devine says: "The local political reporter is the person at the coal face - digging out what is happening at the town hall. Without this, the local authority has no check on what it can decide. We are also the eyes and ears of the reading public, and nothing should get in the way of this vital information - good or bad - being brought into the public domain. If the political news moves out of the towns and rural areas into the larger cities then local democratic accountability will be lost," he warns.

 

Despite Devine's concern, top executives at GMG insist restructuring of this kind is necessary because the country is facing one of the most hostile economic environments in recent history. Mark Dodson, chief executive of GMG regional media, explains: "We are faced with the most serious revenue problem. We are in a perfect storm and, as a result, we must reduce costs like any business would."

 

But how can his journalists maintain high standards if they are not working from the areas they are reporting on? "We will hold local surgeries and clinics in local areas where residents can talk to the journalists on a regular basis and offer them stories."

 

But doesn't this take the spontaneity out of journalism? "Most work is done by phone, email and technology. All our reporters will be equipped with Nokia 95s [which enable them to take photographs and record and broadcast video] and laptops, but they'll just be working from one central location. We're not closing a single paper down," he reminds me. "Putting it into perspective, Manchester is not a huge place. Salford is just two miles away and Stockport is 11 miles. The further you go the harder it gets, but that's why we have these clinics and surgeries."

 

Despite reassurances from Dodson, GMG will still cut 245 jobs, and concerns have been raised by local MPs about the decision of GMG to close the district offices of 22 weekly papers. An open letter to the executives of GMG from the MPs read: "Local newspapers play an essential role at the heart of their communities and are written by a group of dedicated journalists who live and breathe their town. Local papers strengthen local democracy and community life and provide a forum for individuals and organisations."

 

One of the MPs to sign the letter was Andrew Gwynne, who represents Denton and Reddish. He says: "The beauty of something like the Stockport Express is that it has a dedicated political editor." The concerns of Gwynne and his colleagues is that restructuring means that a pool of journalists will be expected to deal with the papers editorial but they won't necessarily be familiar with the area they will be reporting on. While costsavings may well please publishers, Gwynne and his colleagues say "it raises questions about the quality of the story."

 

 

He is particularly critical of GMG's decision to continue to fund Channel M in the face of other cutbacks. Channel M is a Manchesterbased television station, launched in February 2000, which broadcasts magazine-style programming on the internet and cable networks. Funded entirely by GMG, it covers news across the Manchester area. It has just secured a licence to broadcast on Freeview from November. Gwynne says: "GMG wasted an awful lot of money to prop up Channel M while its weekly papers actually made a profit. Those profits are falling and they may even make a loss, but any loss will only be short term. It [Channel M] is the executives' baby so they won't get rid of it."

 

But Dodson is quick to defend the channel, accepting some sacrifices will have to be made, yet insisting it isn't all over for the Manchester station: "Channel M is not viable in its current form so we're focusing resources on news and sports programmes. We are not going to close the station because our view is that once we are through the recession there is a future for multi-platform media."

 

Local journalism is a vital communication tool between an MP and their constituents. Most MPs have a good relationship with their paper; some writing regular columns, others using it to publicise what they are doing in and for their community. Gwynne explains: "Local papers hold local councils to account. And they may expose uncomfortable stories for the council or run stories they might prefer not to appear, but that's the nature of local news. The paper also gives MPs like me a chance to get my message across. You lose localism, and things that wouldn't be covered anywhere else get covered in local papers."

 

A radical idea proposed by The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is to change the basis of local press from a profit-making enterprise to a social community project. The union's general secretary, Jeremy Dear, concludes that local and regional reporting is so important that profit shouldn't come into it and that we must view local news as a public good.

 

Dear says: "The old business models of newspapers making 30 per cent profit is dead. So we have to look at newspapers as a public good, rather than as a profitable venture. We need to protect papers as part of local democracy. There is no point in giving more money to shareholders. They want to maintain certain profit levels, but cutting back on great journalism is a false economy."

 

In addition to a drop in advertising revenue, the local press has to compete with other increasingly sophisticated journalism platforms, such as the blogosphere and non-professional 'community' journalists. But Dear believes there is room for a range of platforms to coexist: "The future is definitely multimedia; and a newspaper might be the core element of the business. Bloggers and non-professional journalists all have a contribution to make; we're not wedded to a particular platform."

 

Local and regional press is vital for communities; the papers are much loved and exceedingly popular. The Eastern Daily Press out-sells The Sun within its region, for example. But there is another problem facing already beleaguered journalists: local and regional papers just aren't taken seriously by the Government. Chris Fisher, political editor of the Eastern Daily Press says that senior politicians don't show him much interest. This is somewhat mystifying, he says, because "there are four Labour seats in the area I cover, all of which are vulnerable, and you might assume that a Labour government would show more interest.

 

"When they do give us coverage we get press releases. The words 'West Midlands' are deleted and 'East Anglia' inserted, but other than that the press release is exactly the same. They think this is regional coverage." But Mickey Mouse gestures do not encourage Fisher to cover stories that might be relevant to his region.

 

During Alastair Campbell's reign, Fisher and his colleagues were used to a Monday lobby briefing followed by a separate briefing just for the regional press - this was the norm. When the government produced a white paper on social exclusion, for example, he was offered Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, and Minister for the East of England, for an interview but turned it down. Why? Because she isn't the minister responsible for social exclusion. Had he been offered the relevant minister, Hazel Blears, it would have been a different matter. He says: "What does she [Follett] know about it that we don't? You have to put someone up who knows what they are talking about and not offer a political gesture; it's like patting you on the head and going through the motions."

 

In the absence of the informed coverage that only local journalists can provide, an entire level of accountability is lost. Losing the staff and the offices that can generate local news coverage might not, at first glance, appear to be a great problem. But when you realise that it undermines local news reporting and threatens democracy, it matters very much indeed.