How our local newspapers gave way to town hall frees
I CAN ADD something to Jon Slattery’s excellent piece (last issue) on local government reporting. The transformation of so many provincial dailies to tabloids meant a change of tone to meet the perception of readers, who equated the new format with the national examples.
Certain stories were classified as boring, among them reports of council meetings. Many were. But with their eradication went the town-hall reporter and what passed for a lobby system. Council publicity departments filled the void, ready and able to promote the council’s line, and there was little expertise in the newsroom to question their pronouncements.
The same happened in other areas, where specialists in crime, transport, industry, health, music and drama once knew what was going on and won exclusive stories as well as respect for themselves and their newspapers.
Then crime reporters became “police” reporters, a stage in the movement towards currying favour with the local Establishment.
Many papers, their editorial staffs shrinking, began to make other attempts at newsgathering, introducing pages of “grassroots” news supplied by readers to get them involved.
The extension of that is the citizen reporter, a monster of self-contradiction. Imagine the outcry at the introduction of citizen teachers or citizen social workers.
All this indicates how labour-intensive journalism is. Make journalists redundant and services to the reader are threatened, content can become bland, patchy and inaccurate, readers may drift away and advertisers are likely to desert. Downward spirals all round.
Nigel Jarrett
Chepstow