A regional daily editor has hit out at “churnalism” on local papers as he announced a 44pc cover price increase on his own title.
As reported on HoldtheFrontPage on Friday, the Oxford Mail is one of three Newsquest-owned dailies increasing their prices from 45p to 65p from today.
Announcing the price rise in a strongly-worded piece published on Friday, Mail editor Simon O’Neill said the paper needed to charge a “fair” price if it was to continue to set the news agenda for its patch.
And he contrasted the Mail’s approach with that of some local papers who, he claimed, had resorted to “churnalism” to fill their pages.
Wrote Simon: “Contrary to what some believe, news does not come free, or even cheap. Providing a comprehensive news, sport and information service to a county like Oxfordshire requires highly-skilled journalists and large numbers of them.
“The advent of the Internet and the worst recession in living memory have placed our ability to sustain that under severe threat. The very future of some local newspapers is at risk.
“The ‘double whammy’ of the web and mobile devices changing reader habits and the economic downturn has seen approximately half of UK regional newspaper advertising revenues vanish over the last five years.
These have always been the lifeblood of newspapers like ours, comprising as much as 80 per cent of the total income of some newspaper businesses. They effectively subsidised local journalism.
“The response of the industry to the downturn has been to cut – hard, deep and fast – and hundreds of journalists have lost their jobs.
“If this continued, local newspapers like ours would cease to be credible sources of reliable news. Already, the term ‘churnalism’ has been coined to describe the mentality which exists at a few local papers, with a handful of staff ‘filling’ their paper with whatever they could.
“We have not been immune to the crisis, but we are still profitable and have more journalists covering Oxfordshire than all the other print and broadcast news organisations put together. We have also earned a justified reputation for leading the county’s news agenda.
“But we have had to make some tough decisions to preserve that – and we are asking you to do the same. In short, if we are to continue providing a strong, professional news service, we have to demand a fair price for it. And that price is considerably higher than the one we are currently charging.”
The Mail joins the South Wales Argus and Worcester News in raising prices from 45p to 65p this morning.
Other Newsquest dailies to have raised cover prices over the past year include The Argus, Brighton, the Bournemouth Echo, Northern Echo, Southern Daily Echo, and Lancashire Telegraph.
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Wrote Simon: “Contrary to what some believe, news does not come free, or even cheap….”
Eh? Shouldn’t that be ‘freely’ and ‘cheaply’? Tch.
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Some honesty and frankness! I’m not sure it will make a great deal of difference but good on you Simon
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I like the term ‘churnalism’, very appropriate for the majority of local papers these days thanks largely to staffing cutbacks, not the “few local papers” as Mr O’Neill suggests.
If the Oxford Mail is very different to most others I’d be very surprised.
All it will do in the short-term is maintain profit margins & shareholder’s dividends. Many of the public aren’t so daft as to not see this for what it is – greed in a time of economic hardship for many. Wave goodbye to about a fifth of your readers I’d guess – just as the Oxford Times did.
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Honorable and true words indeed. But he’ll really have to walk the walk after talking this talk. If he does, best of luck to him. Regional journalism needs a few more like him.
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We had one at the Telegraph, Sub up North, but last year the big cheeses decided he didn’t quite fit their mould/mold.
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Quality journalism “requires highly-skilled journalists and large numbers of them.”
So why are some Newsquest centres facing redundancies in editorial, failure to fill vacant posts, cuts of admin staff placing more pressure on journalists to fulfill non-journalism tasks…
I could go on – but you get the point.
It’s not even as if us “highly-skilled journalists” who have to do everything from covering death and destruction daily, to making legal arguments in court, get a decent wage!
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This is not his decision as an editor, but a Newsquest one, as the Oxford Mail is not the only paper doing it. I wonder if any of the extra profit will go towards pay increases for the over-worked and under-paid staff.
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“it’s not even as if us “highly qualified journalists………………get a decent wage”, moans Unionman.
Poor grammar again! When will people who aspire to be journalists ever get it right?
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So the Oxford Mail leads the news agenda in Oxfordshire.
That is some boast.
But I like this editor… obviously a bit spunky.
But Simon… be careful what you wish for. When those sleepy Oxfordshire businesses wake up to the fact that niche internet advertising is x8 more effective than print advertising, you might be slightly less cavalier with your boasts
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Perhaps all those people who lost their jobs at the Oxford Mail and Times in the past two years owing to redundancy would like to comment.
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Churnalism exists in ALL newspapers – even the Oxford Mail. It has to because every newspaper in the country is operating with fewer staff than ever before and simply cannot cover as much as they used to.
Any editor who denies it’s happening in their newsroom, as Mr O’Neill seems to be suggesting, obviously doesn’t spend enough time in it!
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I used to call it production line journalism… it’s what happens when profit margins need to be at 40percent
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Well it is now 5 Days since we have the new “improved” Oxford Mail & to be honest it may be more pages, but there is only the same amount of interest to us as readers, I think Tuesday edition with the massive pull out advertising of mail order “junk” was when we started to think that it is not worth the extra cost.
I realise that Journalists have to be paid & the newspaper is not a charitable institution, but for the price increase has made us decide to no longer have the paper delivered, I know of other readers who are of the same opinion.
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