Community newspaper funding – how would it work?

Noticed an interesting piece about possible cash being allocated to communities where their local  newspapers have closed.

Public funding for community newspaper start-ups could be provided in Wales under plans being discussed by politicians in the principality, says Hold The Front Page.

Half-a-million has already been allocated to help boost community radio stations in Wales – and a fund for community newspapers could be up next.

On the surface, I think it’s a fantastic initiative which would have an obvious impact on my project if it were rolled out in England too.

As I’ve said before on this blog, nature abhors a vacuum, and if regional publishers withdraw from the communities they serve they’ll soon find other forms of media springing up in their place.

It’s democratically and socially essential that communities are empowered with a voice, and that they have access to local news, information and services.

So it all sounds grand in principle.

But, if you take England as an example, if the government allocated half a million for community newspaper start-ups, how would it work practically?

Would the government have editorial control? Could they withdraw funding if they didn’t like what was written? Would  it really be an independent voice?

As Rupert Murdoch said this week, the thought of any government having a stake in a media organisation hoping to have genuine freedom of speech and being free from political bias is enough to make most people shiver.

You’d have to have an independent body to the government, similar but perhaps a bit more official to online’s Talk About Local, to help local people set up their community newspapers.

You’d also have to offer ongoing support and training. Would a journalist(s) sit in some sort of regional group editor/support role?

There needs to be some degree of professional support.

No matter how transparent you are that the paper’s written by the community or community editors/reporters, you need a journalist or someone with industry experience providing credibility and authority in the eyes of readers – in print more than online.

And you need the experience of an experienced journalist if you’re going to cover council/expose council wrongdoing.

I’ll be looking at developments with interest - there’s a lot more work ahead other than just providing an handing out the cash.

The structure of any government initiative and the support on offer is just as important as the money in nthe long term.

I don’t give a **** about Google!

Had an interesting debate about the internet with a good mate of mine in the pub last Thursday.

Apparently he’d uploaded a story onto his paper’s website, done the headline only for the web editor to alter his headline in an effort to get the name of the paper’s city in it.

“It’s fer Google, mate,” said the indignant web editor. “Search Engine Optimisation.”

“But I don’t give a **** about Google,” my friend replied. “The internet doesn’t make any money for this company.”

He went on about how the art of headline writing had been destroyed by the internet.

And he went on to argue that uploading all the paper’s stories in full before the paper hit the streets was just barmy and was costing the paper thousands of sales.

At first I thought the whole argument was one typical of many regional press journalists – the King Canute ‘I won’t have owt to do with t’internet, it’s killing papers’ malarky.

And the argument about not doing a headline properly for the appropriate medium (ie web is different to print because people read differently online) is just plain daft to me.

Television doesn’t work on radio and radio usually doesn’t work on TV. Different platform, different rules, I’m afraid mate.

But the more I thought about his final point, about uploading the whole paper’s stories word for word before the print version hit the street, the more I realised he was actually right.

Regional press companies really ought to be using the internet in a complementary way, rather than conflicting with an existing product.

They should be looking to tease what’s in the paper, or give a cut-down version of it (after all, you’re always told on training courses ‘don’t make the reader scroll and don’t give lots of text’.)

Hell, you could even rewrite the story to encourage some comments before it goes to print and then actually use some of the comments in print.

But it is business suicide to just give away your story in full, word for word, in a media which at present earns your company a fifth of what its core (print) business earns.

It just makes no sense. I’m all for developing the internet (and I know newspaper sales were declining long before the web became an extension of what a journalist does), but all this exercise does is undermine the foundations of the business.

And it shouldn’t be that way.

I’ve never been one to say that web will replace print – perhaps it will on some dailies and nationals, but I think there’ll always be a need and demand for printed products in some shape or form.

My mate’s dead right. A more sensible, intelligent and complimentary way of working needs to be found, particularly in this current climate.

Paywalls for regional press?

I see on Hold The Front Page today that some JP weekly titles are to pilot a paywall scheme, whereby users pay £5 for three months’ access to parts of the titles’ websites.

I can understand completely why regional publishers want to do this.

Their idea of transfering the print concept of display advertising online has largely failed and publishers have so far struggled to monetise their web operations.

I also understand that they need to monetise this part of their operation. Journalism doesn’t pay for itself.

I also see the argument that what they offer is sufficiently niche enough to charge for it.

However, I fear that by hiding content behind paywalls in a medium where people expect free content and where they have never before paid for local news content may be too much of a stretch.

I think it could also play straight into the hands of an emerging sector I keep prattling on about here – that of community media.

Organisations like Talk About Local and , to a lesser degree, Manchester’s People’s Voice Media, which are encouraging local communities to empower themselves by running their own local news sites and becoming community reporters will surely benefit from regional press paywalls.

The sites and social media that they’ve helped people to set up will surely only grow in popularity.

Existing community sites like the Salford Star and Ventnor Blog on the Isle of Wight already offer a decent alternative to mainstream news organisations.

By going in this direction, regional press publishers run the risk of alienating their online readers and increasing the lack of access to local news which is already gaping because of declining circulations of the printed product.

They’re playing into the hands of local bloggers and sites – and let’s not forget the spectre of the BBC’s free content.

The social and democratic ramifications of introducing paywalls really ought to be discussed and raised somewhere more important than my humble little blog!

South Leeds social media

AM hoping to run my third social media surgery early in the new year.

I’ve already run a couple for South Leeds Health for All, but I’d like nto expand this to all groups in the South Leeds area.

It’ll be a couple of hours of your time – but time well spent!

If you’re interested in raising the profile of you group or organisation in the community or, indeed, if you’re a community-minded individual wanted to get their voice heard, I can help you set yourself up online by using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and blogs etc.

There’s no charge for my time (I’m just that sort of guy!) and no charge for using any of the social media programmes you’ll be using.

Post a comment below if you’re interested.

Water good Doctor Who!

Sorry – know this has nothing to do with me being grouchy about local media woes etc, but HOW GOOD was Doctor Who on Sunday?

Waters of Mars was just fantastic.

David Tennant was bang on form,  and the episode was scary, witty and thought-provoking.

And it was controversial, too! Fancy the Doctor losing the plot like that!

I’ve said if before and I’ll say it again – Doctor Who will miss head writer Russell T Davies when he goes.

You may be interested in reading some of these reviews as well.

Roll on The End of Time!

So… ARE local newspapers worth saving?

INTERESTING piece onGuardian.co.uk yesterday about whether local newspapers are worth saving.

Blogger George Monbiot’s piece I, too, mourn good local newspapers – but this lot aren’t worth saving is damning in its criticism of the local press and comes to the conclusion that because of conflicts of interest, a lack of investment and a lack of relevancy, local papers actually died a long time ago.

In his blog, he says… 

“They are the pillars of the community, champions of the underdog, the scourge of corruption, defenders of free speech. Their demise could deal a mortal blow to democracy. Any guesses yet? How many of you thought of local newspapers?

“But this is the universal view of the national media: local papers – half of which, on current trends, are in danger of going down in the next five years – are all that stand between us and creeping dictatorship.

“Like my colleagues, I mourn their death; unlike them I believe it happened decades ago.”

He goes on to add:

“Most local papers exist to amplify the voices of their proprietors and advertisers and other powerful people with whom they wish to stay on good terms… But they also contribute to what in Mexico is called caciquismo: the entrenched power of local elites. This is the real threat to local democracy, not the crumpling of the media empires of arrogant millionaires.”

Monbiot makes a number of sweeping generalisations in his piece, basing much of his argument on one (admittedly typical and horrendous) incident with his own local rag supporting plans to build a new supermarket (which presumably he was opposed to).

I know some newspaper news editors and editors who would fall into the same trap as Monbiot’s local rag and would toe the line.

I remember covering Leeds United’s plans for a new Leeds Arena next to Elland Road back in the late 1990s.

Local residents were rightly horrified at the noise and impact an extra 80-odd rock concerts and ice hockey games each year would have on their lives, which were already blighted by Leeds United matchdays.

Yet I remember my boss (who’s no longer there)  saying to me that I needed to downplay the local opposition ‘as we’ve only just got back on good terms with Leeds United and I’m not going to let these people ruin that for us’.

Luckily for me I wasn’t managed too tightly in those days so I managed to go ahead and do what I wanted (which was support the residents).

But it’s a perfect example of how local newspapers have taken their eyes off their readers and are more concerned about their own interests. And Monbiot’s right, this was happening years ago – the rot’s well and truly set in.

I set up the South Leeds Information Project to establish a community newspaper 12, 13 years ago because I could see then that there was a huge and vitally important chunk of community life going unreported.

It’s what I had described to me rather sniffingly as ‘lower tier’ stuff – you know, covering local events, parish council meetings, community campaigns, the work of local groups, services and organisations etc etc.

For me, even as a trainee reporter, I always believed that not reflecting your community and readers, no matter how parochial your story, was a sure-fire way to hurt your business in the long-term.

That and having demotivated and skills-challenged ‘reporters’ office-bound, copying and pasting in press releases word for word - and then expecting a byline for their efforts.

It’s why social media and online community media (which doesn’t necessarily rely on substantial patronage from powerful local individuals, companies or bodies) is now starting to emerge as a realistic alternative to mainstream press in some towns and cities.

In some areas, however, I think the local press still has a relevance to the communities it serves.

Take the paid-for weekly Wakefield Express in the past two years – it’s campaigned to boost literacy in the city by working with local schools to encourage children and adults to read; it’s running a campaign to make a local run-down and dangerous railway station safer and better (a perfect example of taking local authorities to task); it’s about to launch a campaign highlighting unsung community heroes and has an annual Christmas appeal.

It regularly takes a scathing stance on what the local council’s doing (or not doing).

Some of its sister papers have this year campaigned and supported struggling traders with ‘Save our shops’ initiatives.

Over the years at my various papers, I’ve set up and run campaigns to highlight poor cleansing/litter control in parts of the city; highlighted the poor condition and dangers facing some of the city’s parks; run community awards and really dug beneath the surface of one run-down community which was always getting a bad press in the mainstream media and highlighted the good work that went on there.

So holding councils and bodies to account and showing communities in their true light is still alive and well in the papers I’ve been involved in, thank you very much. It can be done, but you need the vision and motivation to do it.

But I do take Monbiot’s point that the industry as a whole is failing its readers and democracy in general. If it wasn’t, then the Beatblogger initiatives to be run by the Guardian’s Sarah Hartley probably wouldn’t be necessary.

Some good work still goes on in the regional press, but not nearly enough.

Community media needs funding

IT’S South Leeds Health For All’s AGM on Friday and the chance for me to catch up with some old friends.

SLHFA is the umbrella organisation which my project falls under.

I’ve known head honcho Pat McGeever for some 15 years now and seen her organisation grow from a one-woman band almost literally based in a broom cupboard in Hunslet’s Voluntary Action Leeds to the impressive organisation it is today.

She’s a wonderful woman. And hopelessly busy!

Pat employs almost 150 people in 80-odd community projects across the deprived south of the city.  She has everything from Asian women’s groups to community forums and youth groups on her books.

AGM time is always welcome. You get the chance to network, catch up on the many things the organisation’s doing – and you get to chinwag with old pals, some of which date back to my first job as a reporter in South Leeds some 15 years ago.

Many of thecommunity issues connected with anti-social behaviour, deprivation, council neglect and local developments are still exactly the same as 15 years ago – which is a sad joke in itself.

Anyway, Pat will shortly be putting in a bid to get my Media Hub project some funding which (after 12 months of inertia) will hopefully set us on our way – but the lack of decent funding opportunties is REALLY hampering us.

Ironically, it seems there are some opportunities to get a year’s funding for new projects, but that just begs the question how projects can be sustainable.

I know the country’s bankrupt and that all funding’s at a premium, but funding organisations must grasp the nettle and look at funding ongoing projects.

Sadly, funders are like magpies and like everything new and sparkly, when what’s really needed is long-term sustainability in the so-called third sector.

Otherwise our AGMs will just keep on getting smaller and smaller in coming years.

And the issues I keep reporting on year after year will never be resolved.

Newspapers in The Land That Time Forgot

YOU’D think that, after 15 years in the job, nothing would surprise me when it comes to a newspaper office and how it’s run.

But I came across one office recently which seemed to be like something out of the cult 70′s dinosaur movie The Land That Time Forgot.

They had a really old picture archive system that seemed to rely more on looking through endless sheets of paper rather than a computerised archive.

They did their stories in Word, printed the story out for the editor to read, he’d make the amends on the paper and pass it back to the reporter. Ever heard of doing amends on a computer?

Instead of relying on PDFs of the pages to find old stories, they keep printouts of their stories in big stacks of A4 paper.

Now, this remanant of a bygone age may seem quaint. It might even sound lovable to the nostalgic.

But it got me thinking – if some journalists are still operating paper-driven offices that have barely changed since the 1970s, what hope have they got of grasping so-called new media?

Clearly the companies haven’t invested in training in small offices like these.

It’s this kind of stagnancy that’s contributing to the malaise of mainstream media.

Were I somebody living on that patch, I’d be looking to organisations like Talk About Local and People’s Voice Media to help me set up some online competition to do the job properly.

If journalists aren’t trained or managed properly, the big media companies have only got themselves to blame if community micro-sites come in and fill a gap in the market.

My pal says community reporting is dead

I WAS talking to a journo friend over the weekend.

It made me wonder if some of the hacks in the regional press will ever get the ‘digital revolution’,  let alone the rise of the community media sector.

Usually when I talk about community media, hacks often glaze over and haven’t a clue what I’m talking about.

But my friend didn’t even glaze over. He said with venom that community reporting didn’t sell newspapers – it was crime and murder and court and death and destruction and… you get the picture.

He said no-one was interested in what happened at the local village fete any more, or what local groups were doing.

Hard juicy news sells, he says.

And, what’s more, he’ll be glad when all this multi-platform ‘fad’ is out of newspaper companies’ systems.

I guess at least he cares enough about his job to have an opinion (I could name a few subs at my old place who seem to care about nothing other than moaning and themselves).

But I find his opinion very sad – and indicative of the way the industry’s going.

Newspapers neglect the grass roots of the communities that they serve at their peril. Reporters don’t seem to understand that they have more than their careers to serve.

Time will tell whether this self-serving attitude will do as much to undermine the viability of regional press as the ‘asset-sripping uncaring’ companies my friends on subs moan about on a daily basis.

And as for the internet ‘going away’, I think the number of hyperlocal community sites springing up would show that comment to be laughable.

Hyperlocal news goes into hyperdrive!

AFTER having a fortnight off, there’s a lot to catch up on in the world of hyperlocal journalism – particularly for my would-be community project.

A couple of Saturdays back I attended the first Talk About Local Unconference in Stoke-on-Trent. As someone who’s been a journalist for 15 years, I  found the event - wonderfully run by Will Perrin and co - probably the most eye-opening eight hours or so I’ve ever had in this industry.

While media commentators fall over themselves on a daily basis to say to say they know THE future of journalism, all I can say after this event, is that I  know at least PART of the future of journalism.

An event sponsored by Ofcom and Channel 4 no less, the Unconference was full of inspiring stories about local people, fed up at the lack of genuine connection with mainstream media, who have gone ahead and launched their own local news and comment sites.

Fascinating tales about hostile council press offices to difficulties in monetising sites (tell me about it) - it was all featured.

I took so much away from it, I couldn’t possibly begin to list it all here, but the overriding message to mainstream media was:  Watch your back – we’re filling the void you’re leaving behind!

When organiser Will Perrin said at the end of the event that the future of journalism could possibly be found somewhere in the room, it was hard to disagree with him. Nice rallying cry, Will!

Click on the Talk About Local link to find out more about the event.

Secondly, had a really good meeting with a community development worker friend of mine and Gary Copitch from Manchester-based People’s Voice Media last Friday. 

His is a terrific project – he has more than 150 community reporters in the North West alone working from numerous social media hubs at key points in the community.

Hopefully we’ll be linking up with him in the new year to spread the People’s Voice Media franchise to t’other side of’t’ Pennines!