Comments on: Five free weekly titles to be axed by Johnston Press

By: Paul Warren

Paul Warren — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:31:45 +0000

Such a shame.

By: Curious

Curious — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:14:06 +0000

Johnston Press is like a dripping tap cum Chinese water torture. Every day there is more bad news, heaping yet more misery to another part of its’ decimated empire. It’s been going on for so long that I’m surprised there’s anything left. Exporting UK jobs to India was a new low yesterday. I wonder what they have in store for tomorrow.
There are many contenders for Britain’s worst employers in the regional newspaper field but JP take the crown. The ‘you have a week to decide if you want to go and work in India’ is the jewel in their crown!

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By: Graeme Tiffany

Graeme Tiffany — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:44:20 +0000

Bad. The state talks ‘Big Society’ and presides over an economic system that kills community. Slavoj Žižek is right, a lot of bluster about the local but globalisation rules. I remember well the demise of the Pudsey Times’ letters page – I said then it was a sign of things to come. Folk will have to go online for running results: http://www.pudseypacers.com/ … unless the PT can be taken over by a mutual (sic.).

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By: Last one out - switch off the light

Last one out - switch off the light — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:06:24 +0000

Johnston Press should be renamed as John is Depressed!!!!!!!!
Well at least the poor souls who still work there are as well as the share holders watching another set of seniors screwing things up.
lol!

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By: Sub-head

Sub-head — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:55:29 +0000

Frees not cost-effective – London Evening Standard anyone?

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By: Sub-head

Sub-head — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:49:02 +0000

Great shame – my first paper the PT, next up YEP as free weekly – JP have to be the worst of a very very bad lot

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By: InTheClubStyle

InTheClubStyle — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:35:27 +0000

@freeforall
Point is, if they make money they will survive. If they don’t, they won’t. People will advertise in “living corpses” if the rates and distribution networks are right, and they get results. There are many ad-led frees which are indeed cobbled together with leftovers. They survive as “buffers” to keep out the competition and mop-up the cheaper end of the ad market. They make money, so they are not a waste of newsprint. And the readers know what to expect and (hopefully) turn to a paid-for weekly or daily if they want real news.
There are also lots of frees which have the pagination and content of a paid-for – they just happen, for historical or commercial reasons, to be free. I know free papers of this kind where people outside the distribution area are prepared to pay a cover price for the free (typically 30p)…not just a few of them, but 1,000-plus. It just depends on the market.

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By: stubags

stubags — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:26:01 +0000

Newspapers generally do become “economically unviable” when editorial and advertising staff are cut back to zero.

The West Lothian Herald & Post used to run to 48 pages, was full of locally-generated editorial and advertising, and, pound for pound, was one of the most profitable parts of the Scotsman group.

Then JP took over. Vampires.

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By: freeforall

freeforall — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:10:59 +0000

I am sure these frees were the exception but a lot of JP frees are a waste of newsprint; no extra staff allocated to them and cobbled together with leftovers. Better off dead than living corpses.

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By: JibberJabber

JibberJabber — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:41:41 +0000

* ‘brought to its knees’

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By: outofit

outofit — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:27:35 +0000

It doesn’t take a genius to see the next stage in the JP master plan for Yorkshire.
Now the YP and YEP newsrooms are being combined – under one editor – it’s only a short step to replacing the Leeds Weekly News by making the YEP a weekly paper.
Such humiliation. A once-great, campaigning, investigative, champion-of-the-people newspaper brought to its news, not by market forces or digital technology, but by the incompetence of the JP management.

I just wonder which paid for newspapers in Leeds advertisers are migrating to?

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By: John Stone

John Stone — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:26:25 +0000

A sad sad day. My first job was working on the Pudsey Times! Love the phrase ‘focus on’….
Great management speak.
In other words those journalists who had to do stories for the Pudsey Times and Leeds Weekly News when it was taken off Ackrills can now go back to doing what they were initially employed to do…. no wait they have to cover for their former colleague who is one of the 19 got rid of.
Genius

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By: Spanner

Spanner — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:06:47 +0000

The time for local frees is largely over.
Built on the back of swathes of property advertising, which is now online.

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