Now even firms going through the hoop can avoid local newspapers!

Why oh why is the Government being SO nasty to the Newspaper Society? And, yet again, Big Dave (who, to be fair, probably has rather more cosmic matters on his mind) has failed to come to their rescue.

The latest crazy idea to deprive newspaper publishers of their 20+ percent returns is that businesses that have gone bankrupt will no longer need to advertise creditors' meetings in two local papers.

Can you imagine just how many angry creditors will now miss those important engagements? Mad.

MPs criticise newspaper publishers

Where's that David Cameron when he's really needed?

I'm sure his friends in the Newspaper Society will get him to come and rough up the nasty oiks who have had a go at them:

Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, said: "I think what’s overdone is the companies' loss of profitability.

"When you look at the figures, Trinity Mirror had an operating profit [margin] of 19 per cent, Johnston Press 29 per cent.

"Compare that with Tesco - six per cent. Why are they out to make such huge profits out of the media?"

Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, said: "Newspaper conglomerates have been allowed to build up massive profits over the years.

"They have not invested properly, yet they still want to cream off as much profit as they can. The government must act."

(as reported in Press Gazette)

The best that any of Dave's acolytes could do was ask for special treatment:

Ed Vaizey, Conservative MP for Wantage and Didcot, and shadow culture minister, said the industry decline was clear.

"One major regional news group has seen its advertising decline by 55 per cent in the fourth quarter," he said.

"We all buy our local newspapers assiduously, and we can all see the physical manifestation of what we're talking about. The papers are thinner and the coverage is sketchier."

Vaizey added that the government should "sweep away" legislation that stopped local newspaper groups merging.

No sign of the BBC's big foot here?

Another newspaper closes - BBC not to blame

Well, more evidence that the newspaper industry does not need the BBC's "great big foot" to stamp all over it as it is so good at the job itself.

From Press Gazette

David, David we need you again ...

It seems that Sky News is taking up where the BBC left off, considering an increase in its local news coverage (according to Press Gazette, who heard it in the Lords).

In the interests of justice and fairness, one can only hope that David Cameron will be summoned by the great and good of the Newspaper Society to tell Sky to keep its great big boots off the lawns of local newspapers.

Jut remind me again, who owns Sky?

Long break, new idea

There have been so many acts of self-sabotage performed by the local newspaper industry, none of them being attributable to the BBC's great big foot, that I cannot begin to think about cataloging them.

So, before I start again, take a look at a piece by Richard Addis, from his Shakeup Media blog. Some of the ideas seem to correspond with thoughts expressed on my magazine-oriented blog (Magblog), notably: "Create one single national website for local news."

Jon Slattery gets with it!

I have every respect for Jon Slattery, a veteran reporter of the media scene, but a recent blog post seems to indicate that he has been inhabiting a different planet for a while.

Where, he asks, is the money to come from to run a good local news website? He notes there is not enough advertising revenue to support such an operation, which is why newspapers are such a good idea.

Err, Jon ...

No more local news from local newspapers

Well, David Cameron's speech warning the BBC to keep its "big foot" out of local news looks more perceptive by the day as local newspapers continue to shed jobs and close down wholesale without appearing to offer anything by way of replacement, online or not.

The latest development is:

Eleven Newsquest newspapers to close

leading the NUJ to accuse the publisher of abandoning communities altogether.

In addition, Trinity Mirror in Wales are about to announce swingeing cuts, including getting rid of all but one training officer and possibly a raft of subs.

Daily Mail HQ comes up with brilliant new online idea

No news yet of the local newspaper online initiatives that bbclocal would have stomped on, but perhaps this brilliantly innovative idea from DMGT HQ is a straw in the wind:

Online shopping pages!

Now that's something the BBC would really have got into, don't you think?

Yesterday I met someone very closely connected to one of the BBC Trust members who was pivotal in the decision not to allow the local video journalism scheme to go ahead. I am now slightly more convinced that the decision was based on a concern that the scheme did not offer value for money (but still not entirely convinced that there wasn't an element of leaning-on somewhere in the process).

This, however, simply reinforces the idea that the Trust members did not give full weight to the long term requirement for local news provision and the BBC's vital role in that.

More great news to convince David Cameron that the Newspaper Society's members really do have local media's best interests at heart:

Newsquest make their Scottish journalists re-apply for their jobs
A good Roy Greenslade blog post on the matter
Alex Salmond gets involved in the issue

Trinity Mirror, Telegraph, cut jobs to improve the quality of journalism

I cannot believe how much material local newspapers are providing for this blog.

In the interests of countering the BBC's plans for local news services with really good content of its own, Trinity Mirror is cutting lots of jobs at local papers.

And the nationals don't want to be left out either, with the Telegraph leading the way.

The Newspaper Society, The BBC Trust, the Government and David Cameron all put the future of local journalism in peril

To a lecture by Rick Waghorn, the entrepreneur-reporter behind Myfootballwriter.com.

Rick's talk helped to crystallise the reason for my irritation/annoyance at the BBC Local-Newspaper Society faceoff that the BBC Trust and Ofcom combined (not conspired, of course) to kill.

The fact is, both sides have missed a massive opportunity to shape the future of local journalism. Rick referred to Jeff Jarvis's concept of the Link Economy, which essentially states that you should stick to doing what you do best and forge links with those who do other things better. That is, both metaphorical and literal links – business alliances and urls.

Why did none of the bodies mentioned above perceive the enormous value that could be generated by linking local newspaper reporters writing about their beats and BBC videographers providing good quality footage?

Why haven't the newspaper groups thought about this swap or barter economy, working with the BBC rather than always kicking it?

Why hasn't Ofcom or the Department of Culture, Media & Sport?

Why hasn't the BBC Trust?

It would be too easy to say that government and quangos are in thrall to the newspaper groups and that the BBC Trust and newspaper boards are comprised of short-sighted has-beens, so I won't say that.

But it's difficult to think of a more convincing reason.

NOT THE BBC'S GREAT BIG FOOT – AGAIN
Just how are the newspaper groups that make up the Newspaper Society going to fund and staff the wonderful new online initiatives they have up their sleeves? By making cuts like these:

Newsquest cuts lots of jobs
CN group cuts lots of jobs
Guardian media blogger thinks it's all rather a shame
Another MP with short-sight and a desire to placate the local paper

Not the BBC's "great big foot" - again

If David Cameron is still looking for examples of the local press barons tripping over their own great big feet he might care to check out these stories about:

Two Newsquest editors being made redundant

The Guardian (yes, the national paper) thinking about BBC-style local sites

Papers in Worcestershire cutting editorial jobs

Trinity Mirror looks for voluntary redundancies in Scotland

All this and stating the bleeding obvious about the economy too! How does he do it?

Not the BBC's Great Big Foot - again

More examples of the newspaper industry looking after the interests of its readers and employees, none of which have anything to do with the BBC's "great big foot" (pace David Cameron, leader of her majesty's opposition):

Jobs go at the Northern Echo
A pair of Dipity timelines
And a nice round up from Hold The Front Page

Sadly, the BBC Trust caves in yet again ...
Ofcom is glad ...
The Newspaper Society is glad
But Paid Content thinks giving the idea up is a bad idea

18/11/08 – 131 journojobs gone

I was so irritated by David Cameron's fatuous speech to the Newspaper Society that I moved from one of the 90, through one of the nine to a number one (a little digital joke there).

If you feel the need, you too can read Cameron's piffle.

What he fails to recognise is that local newspaper groups are killing themselves by cutting back on local news. IT'S NOT THE BBC'S FAULT, DAVID.

Need proof? Here it comes, day by relentless day for as long as I can manage.

Trinity Mirror cuts are criticised by the Welsh Assembly.

Illiffe is cutting 80 jobs in Cambridge and Staffordshire.

From last week, subbing jobs under threat at Newsquest Hampshire.