
Read all about it! But times have changed
Twice in the last week, the issue of switching ‘evening’ newspapers to overnight printing has been cited as a reason for the decline of regional newspapers.
Chris Oakley – the former newspaper editor who built up two regional press companies which were then sold on – said as much while giving a keynote speech to the Society of Editors regional conference. According to HoldtheFrontPage:
Chris highlighted the move to overnight printing on most ‘evening’ titles as one of the causes of their decline, saying it had reduced their relevance to readers.
On the subject of the content of Oakley’s speech, Former Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson asks the questions many people will have been asking, so I’ll not dwell on them here.
The second reference to overnight printing came from Steve himself, in his review of the Hereford Times, which went under the headline ‘Why large weeklies are beating big city dailies.’ Before I go on, I should point out that I worked closely with Steve when he was editor in Birmingham, and think his blog plays an important role in celebrating good things going on in the regional Press.
But his comments in his latest blog irritated me – not just because I disagree, but because I also think they emphasised a sentiment which is quite dangerous:
Nearly all ‘evening’ dailies have lost the vitality created by live news, with fast-shrinking readerships only too aware that they’ve watched, listened or read on the website most stories that can be found 24 hours later in the paper.
Whereas big weeklies, often in smaller towns or rural areas not covered very well by radio, TV or the internet, are still turned to by their readers as the only place to read all about the big story of the week.
The newspaper industry – and therefore the regional news industry – faces many challenges. Sure, it hurts for a while when you work in a newsroom which has lost on-day editions when big stories break, but switching to overnight printing shouldn’t be blamed for the problems the industry faces. Not understanding the role a daily newspaper plays in the 21st century, on the other hand, is a much bigger threat.
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