The local newspaper – once a common sight on coffee tables across the UK – is starting to look as out of date as a record player.
Not so long ago if you wanted to move house, needed a new job, wondered what the council was up to, or who had been up to no good, there was just one place to go – the daily or weekly newspaper.
Now Facebook is the no 1 news referral website, 95% of all UK homes are on Rightmove and if you need a job, there are a plethora of options that mean you don’t have to leave the sofa. If there’s a police car screaming past your window, click onto Twitter or Facebook on your iPhone and you’ll find out what’s going on in minutes if not seconds.
So what’s the point of local newspapers?
Having started my career in local newspapers, perhaps it’s no surprise to hear me rush to their defence. But without our army of local reporters, who else could cut through the hot air of council meetings to uncover what our elected representatives are up to? Who would give a voice to the people who don’t agree with what those representatives are up to?
Who else other than your local reporter would sit in a stuffy court room on the off-chance of a half decent story, with the tenacity – not to mention shorthand speed – to keep up with proceedings?
The local newspaper, with its Golden Wedding photos, bonnie baby competitions and weird and wonderful local campaigns provides a very important function in our communities: It not only reports on what’s happening, it keeps a watchful eye on our elected and non-elected representative, our legal system and the judiciary.
Without it, we will all be poorer.
Latest Tweets