A regional newspaper boss has launched a passionate defence of local weeklies at a lunch to honour his upcoming 90th birthday.
Sir Ray Tindle, pictured left, told guests at yesterday’s lunch, attended by national and local press publishers, that local newspapers “will live forever”.
Sir Ray has spent 68-years in the regional press industry and runs Tindle Newspapers, which owns weekly titles across the South of England and Wales.
He launched his first newspaper aboard a troopship at sea during the Second World War and started his publishing company using his army demob payment of £300.
Speaking at Tuesday’s lunch at the Savoy in London, Sir Ray said: “The newspaper industry should be very proud that for over 200 years we have coped with each problem as it came along.
“To face the current difficulty we’ll achieve more local advertisement revenue and we’ll redesign our businesses in order to ensure that local papers can live out of that new level of revenue, whatever it is. Local papers are wanted and needed by local communities. They will live forever.
“I got a job on a local weekly and I wouldn’t change one day of a wonderful 68 years in the local press. The locals will survive because no other medium gives local news in depth the way local papers do, and local people want this detail.
“Local papers are the only medium most locals will ever appear in, and when they do, that’s the medium in which all their neighbours and friends will see it, and so local papers will always be there.”
Ashley Highfield, the NMA’s current chairman, told Sir Ray at the lunch: “Never before in the history of the British press has there been a publisher quite like you. We salute you, Ray, for your three years of war time service.
“We applaud your 68-year career and over 55 years of wise counsel to the NMA and the NS before it. We thank you for the marvellous lunch we are enjoying today. And we wish you continued success, prosperity and good health throughout your 90th year and beyond.”
Over course of his career, Sir Ray has held numerous roles within the news media industry. He was a founder member of Capital Radio and a member of the Guardian Media Group board for nearly 20 years.
He launched the Weekly Newspaper Advertising Bureau and has been Master of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers.
Sir Ray also served on the Newspaper Panel of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and was a member of the Commonwealth Press Union council, as well as being a founder director of PressBoF.
He has also served the Newspaper Society, now the News Media Association, for 55 years in various capacities – including chairman, honorary treasurer and councillor.
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Congratulations Ray, you’ve been a great advocate and custodian of the regional press.
There have been ups and downs (including the JP shares disaster in the latter) but you’ve served the industry and many local communities brilliantly.
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You’ve got to admire an optimist.
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I actually agree local press will survive – although not as Sir Ray may envisage it.
This durable beast (local press, that is, although I guess that could also apply to Sir Ray) will re-invent itself in the form of hyper-local papers based within their own communities like it was 150-odd years ago. The wheel will have turned full circle.
There will still be local press – but not as we know it…
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A hackneyed word, admittedly, but Sir Ray is an icon of the weekly newspaper industry. And another great day for a knight.
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Blimey – I reckon Sir Ray reckons he’s going to go on forever, too.
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During the years that I worked for Tindle Newspapers I must be honest and say that we journalists never really felt very valued. Low staffing levels and low salaries were generally the order of the day in editorial. It was all about advertising. But, in fairness, Sir Ray is passionate about local weekly newspapers overall and has kept quite a few going where other owners would probably have closed them down. He has certainly had a remarkable career and deserves to celebrate. Though I do hope his guests at the Savoy didn’t have to suffer snippets from his infamous joke book!
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Hats off to Sir Ray but has be seen circulation figures recently?
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I had a brief brush with Tindle Newspapers in the late 1980s and the message that came through loud and strong was that journalism was basically a secondary consideration. What really mattered was advertising revenue.
As a result, most Tindle newspapers were pretty poor fare – limp, insipid, bloodless and as dull as ditchwater. The staff were poorly paid and everything was done on a hand-to-mouth basis. It was hardly the invigorating environment you normally associate with newspaper journalism.
That said, the company offered security and stability to those who sought nothing else and had a formula that appeared to work tolerably well while others hit the dust in droves.
As Sir Ray celebrates his 90th, it must be said his optimism is heartening, and no-one can deny that his ultra-local ideals have been vindicated. If local papers are to survive, they must stop mimicking Fleet Street (which is itself ailing and failing) and go back to the parish pump, where they were always meant to be.
Tindle’s success is no accident. Somewhere along the line, he is giving people what they want, and that’s what business is all about.
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Hard to knock but I’m sorry has he not seen the latest and ongoing ABC figures that show the printed paper in terminal decline ?
It’s great to be optimistic but it’s also a fine line between that and wishful thinking.
If communities wanted local papers they’d be buying them not walking away in their thousands so yes I’m sure it will be around but not in the way he naively thinks it will be .
Hyper local free papers and targeted demographic lifestyle magazines are thriving as they’re doing what the regionals no longer do which is making the difference, no deadwood,no huge overheads, quality staff and high standards of content and no internal politics which are all aspects that are pulling the locals down and into a position from which they cannot recover
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Are you sure this is really Sir Ray? I can’t see any mention of Churchill anywhere. Is he alright?
Rambler – There hadn’t been a pay rise at some papers since before Tindle took over, and I understand that the so-called no redundancy policy just means that Publishing Managers put pressure on editors to get rid of journalists by other means. Unfair dismissals and bullying by news editors who were actually pretty mediocre journalists (but had the confidence of overworked editors) were the order of the day, I hear. Ironically, those forced out have ended up doing far better with their careers than those who were responsbile for costing Tindle lots of money thorugh successful unfair dismissal claims. I wonder if Tindle will get on the investigating the problems buzz?
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Talk about out of touch
Old thinking and wishful thinking is all very well if you want to tell people what they want to hear but if your views and opinions are meant to be taken seriously then this just shows how out of touch sir Ray is nowadays.
One look at the direction all regional papers are going is enough to make his views sound ridiculous,and as was mentioned if communities really wanted a local paper they would buy one, quite clearly people are finding today’s weak offerings as not worth the money and voting with their feet.
The regional press is in its death throes and sir Ray might have been better advised to have spoken about the current state and his views as to why rather than risk losing credibility by coming out with a view he woukd like us to believe but which has no bearing on or reflection of the state of regional press in this country
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