Local World: New initiative for regional press

Just heard a bit about that on the radio, it was the comment, "we'll be making the most of user generated content" that didn't leave me with much hope for the professional sector.
 
Yeah, I heard that. A lot of what they are apparently planning will be web based. So, small images that don't show the flaws. But it seems that they want to keep at least the weekly titles so will still need decent shots for those.
 
Hmmmm the outcome of this will be quite visible from here :-/

Am busy trying to find out what it actually means... its all just management-speak at the moment...
 
Nice that they're intending to spend some money and try to rescue the business instead of just keeping on cutting it until it falls over but as desantnik has said it sounds like they're talking fluff.

I'm not sure who they think Google are getting their content from either. I'm pretty sure there isn't someone in the US doing reviews of Teesside restaurants for Google Maps and posting on Facebook about any traffic problems on the A19, it's coming from local sources already. The only bit they can really do better than anyone else is "proper" journalism and photojournalism but do local papers have enough to report on that needs real serious in depth reporting for the to employ the staff?
 
Since I wrote that post I've been off trying to find out quite what they are up to... errrm still not sure!

It sort of looks like they plan to make a vast journo pool somewhere and contract out the printing.

In other words, massive cost/job cutting.

Secondly, they plan a new single web platform - that wouldn't be a bad thing, Northcliffe's current cloned ones look like something a GCSE IT student knocked up....and got an D grade for it.

But its still all very vague...

DazJW said:
do local papers have enough to report on that needs real serious in depth reporting for the to employ the staff?
Click to expand...

Well, local news if you go back far enough had plenty - even daily papers with page/word counts to rival the modern broadsheet nationals.

The big trouble came really when the advertising became the money making part of the exercise, not the selling of the paper to the readers.

That drove the business urge to provide content down and it spiralled from there - particularly when other forms of advertising became readily available.

Some papers that were news papers are basically just advertising flyers now with a front page headline to make you pick it up. Can't really see how they keep going with that one!
 
I don't see the point. The problem is lack of revenue, not lack of local interest, and folks getting local news etc elsewhere.

Kim is right, local papers have had a business model heavily skewed towards ad reveune and that has gone (mostly to local radio). And they've lost the critical classified lineage sales to e-bay and AutoTrader etc that made a load of money and attracted wide copy sales too.

I'm kinda symapthetic and frustrated by these kinds of feeble initiatives. Get smart to the new media landscape and stop flogging a dead horse. The technical term is FBER'd.

PS And micropayments won't save them either, even if the timescale for that was survivable. You need a big readership pool for that to work, national at least.
 
Yes micro payments is a fail, old business model flogging a dead horse as has been said.

I cant help but think, what is wrong with having great news as a spread sheet on-line ...but before you can read page two, click! ...you have to sit through a minute of adverts? (works for youtube right)...each ad set worth a penny in advertising costs maybe? .... ten pages later if the news is good enough, they'll have a whole 10p and the paper paid for just like the old days.
How accurate is my costing I wonder ...close?
 
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