AddThis SmartLayers

Regional daily scraps district editions following print move

A leading regional daily is axeing its four geographical editions from this week after moving its printing operation.

The Yorkshire Post has previously printed an edition for each of the four historic areas of the county – West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and North Yorkshire.

Now they are to be combined into a single first edition, with a final edition for late-breaking news and sports results.

It follows the closure of the Post’s printing plant in Leeds and the switching of the printing operation to Sunderland and Dinnington, near Sheffield, from today.

However the print move is also allowing the Johnston Press owned title to move to full colour from today.

And bosses say the changes will not mean the disappearance of district content from the paper.

JP’s West Yorkshire managing director Helen Oldham said:  “From Monday the Yorkshire Post will have full colour on every page following the movement of printing to Dinnington and Sunderland.

“On the back of the additional colour availability Saturday’s Weekend edition has undergone a transformation which has enabled us to give the paper a fresher look.

“District content will still be included in the paper and, for many staff, there is a chance that their work will get a better show – and be read by many more readers.

“Our plan is to produce two editions per day, which brings the Monday to Friday paper in line with our best-selling Saturday operation.”

The weekday paper is to be printed in Sunderland with the Saturday paper printed at Dinnington.

One JP insider said that the edition structure had had to be changed because the Sunderland press could not cope with producing four editions or adding extra pagination.

15 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • March 12, 2012 at 8:42 am
    Permalink

    The JP insider is right. Helen Oldham’s explanation is a cosmetic one – printing press shortfalls is the real reason.
    If the Leeds plant is closing where will the Evening Post print? A Legoland!
    Another nail in the coffins of two once-great papers.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 8:48 am
    Permalink

    What will happen to the district reporters and district offices? The spin on cuts being better for everyone is nauseating at times. I wonder if the bosses at the Yorkshire Post do actually believe the product will be better.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 9:51 am
    Permalink

    ‘the four historic areas of the county ‘?? — don’t think so. The term ‘riding’ is of Viking origin and derives from Threthingr meaning a third part. There were once three ridings in Yorkshire – the East Riding, West Riding and North Riding, never a South Riding, except in the Winifred Holtby novel, which, being a novel, was a work of fiction.
    Who needs a local press that doesn’t know about local culture?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 9:55 am
    Permalink

    The once-superb Evening Argus at Brighton did that, closing its local offices and concentrating mostly on Brighton news and occasionally cherry-picking from the rest of East and West Sussex.
    From newspaper of the year and a peak of well over 100,000 a day it is just topping 20,000 as a morning paper. Be warned.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 9:59 am
    Permalink

    Ms Oldham reckons less is more, does she? It won’t fool the readers.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 10:13 am
    Permalink

    The ‘Evening’ Post is already printed overnight in Dinnington. Moving the Yorkshire Post print to Sunderland/Dinnington has coincided with a cover charge increase of the Saturday edition from £1 to £1.10. It is not so long ago the Saturday price went from 90p to £1 with the introduction of a glossy covered magazine. This on top of further dramatic falls in circulation for both titles.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 10:30 am
    Permalink

    Pity you cut the last par of my comment. That was a personal view based on fact and, in my mind, not offensive.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 10:49 am
    Permalink

    Ah, I wondered why Steve Brown had been moved on. These are the kind of cut to local news content that he would have resisted.

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 12:22 pm
    Permalink

    I agree entirely with most of the comments, and especially the one about the Brighton Argus. They once had seven district offices and now there are none. When the last one, at Worthing, was closed the district reporter Paul Holden was made redundo. His local knowledge was encylopaedic and his list of contacts would stretch for miles. The fools who know not what they do (or did). Ex-Brighton sub, now retired.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 12:36 pm
    Permalink

    The obsession with money above all else is becoming a real bore. Do these people wake up in the morning and just think about money, and nothing but money, day in, day out? What a venal and hateful way to be.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 1:14 pm
    Permalink

    When I was deputy editor and news editor of the Tamworth Herald, a weekly which was selling 31,000 when I was made redundo in 1998 after a takeover by the evil Adscene, I had nine reporters, a sub, editorial assistant and two photographers working for me (now five reporters, I believe, two part time, and the two photographers covering five areas instead of just Tamworth). More to the point, before the takeover the excellent Herald group editor Keith Boughey and management had a great sense of civic responsibility. He encouraged me to go out and join committees (in my own time) to fly the flag. I was a member of the then local crime prevention committee for 17 years and chairman for three years and a member of the area Duke of Edinburgh Award committee. Some days, in my crime prevention role, I had as many as 10 calls a day from the police but he and I accepted that as part of the civic responsibility territory. Now most newspaper managements, and probably all the PLCs, couldn’t give a damn about civic responsibility or involvement. The bean counters have overwhelmingly triumphed. How sad.There is much foul language I would like to use but obviously cannot.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 1:41 pm
    Permalink

    The sad demise of a once proud and powerful regional newspaper industry continues. Everyone understands that times have changed but the changes that are being forced on those that still cling on to their jobs are based on a desperate bid to continue making huge profits out of a society that has no more money to give.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 12, 2012 at 3:34 pm
    Permalink

    @steve dyson. Steve Brown (who he?) could have resisted all he liked, but it wouldn’t have made any difference. All the papers that are printed in Dinnington lose their editions because the print slots are so tight. Churning ’em out fast and moving on to the next one doesn’t allow for niceties like editionising. All that expensive messing about changing plates, oh noooo! News content’s got naff all to do with it and the editors have no say.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 13, 2012 at 9:16 am
    Permalink

    Having read the above comments from what appears to be apprentice Luddites with nothing but moans and groans to offer instead of giving us their erudite thoughts on saving the Industry and dare I say Jobs.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • March 13, 2012 at 10:29 am
    Permalink

    Having cut my teeth on that great newspaper, it is truly sad and the beginning of the end. But we have to face facts – only a handful of the younger generation read newspapers and if circulation drops, businesses don’t advertise and so the spiral downwards continues. If we want to preserve an excellent, independent press to inform, reflect and act as a watchdog on life around us, everyone has to charge for online coverage to pay for the paper in your hand.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)