A weekly newspaper has announced it is closing its town centre office and moving its staff to a town 17 miles away.
The Frome Standard will be closing its office in the town today after its lease on the building came to end.
According to a story on the paper’s website, staff will continue to work in Frome but will be based at an office in Wells.
The journey from Frome to Wells is 17 miles by road and takes approximately 34 minutes via the A361.
Standard editor Lynne Fernquest, pictured, said: “We remain as committed as ever to Frome and while our staff may report into our office in Wells, our reporters and newspaper sales staff will continue to be out and about in Frome and the surrounding area daily ensuring we are capturing all of the latest news.”
Contact details for the Standard’s two reporters, Claire Wilson and Caroline Wood, will stay the same.
The paper’s website, fromestandard.co.uk, is shortly due to be merged with those of seven other former Local World titles in the South West as part of a reorganisation by new owners Trinity Mirror.
A single site, to be called Somerset Live, is to be created as the online presence for the Standard, the Central Somerset Gazette, Cheddar Valley Gazette, Somerset Guardian, Wells Journal, Western Gazette, North Somerset Mercury and Shepton Mallet Journal.
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“We remain as committed as ever to Frome…” Why do people say these things when what’s happened makes it so patently untrue? To paraphrase Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, “thus mortgages (and kids and bills) make cowards of us all.” I’ll give our industry, in its corporate form at least, another two-three years at most and then it’s done.
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“We remain as committed as ever to Frome”
Apart from the whole moving out the town thing, yeah? Lynne knows it’s nonsense…
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Yes, of course she knows it’s nonsense. She has a job. For now.
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“….We remain as committed as ever to Frome….”
I’m embarrassed for her having to put her name to this guff when she knows upping sticks and pulling the plug on a town they purport to serve is lip service and patronising to the towns folk who’ll simply see this as another business closure and another empty premises in Frome, that really shows commitment and supports the local economy doesn’t it?
I wonder when one editor will have enough pride in themselves to tell it as it is rather than trotting out company bull that fools no one and destroys any credibility they may have had by adopting the yes man( or woman) company line
Good to know the sales reps will still be preying on the local businesses looking to take revenue from them, I hope the business community shoes them the same level of support and conotnebt they’ve shown Frome
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I wonder how committed the citizens of Frome will be to The Frome Standard now it is based in Welles?
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“While our staff may report into our office in Wells, our reporters and newspaper sales staff will continue to be out and about in Frome and the surrounding area daily…”
No, you won’t. And you blinking well know it.
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As an afterthought to my previous post, sometimes I think the pressure to keep up appearances in the face of cuts is more head-wrecking than the impact of the cuts themselves.
It’s bad enough to have to endure poorer working conditions and the knowledge that your title is dropping in quality, but being forced to pretend that everything’s still fine is the ultimate insult.
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Frome here to eternity
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this is what happens when the bean counters get hold of the reigns .. a particular and peculiar loathing of the trade we’re in; journalism. maybe it’s because they don’t understand what it a local paper means that they act with such blatant business stupidity. i feel sorry for good people like lynne who has to tow the party line for fear that they will be next to be calling an Addison taxi….
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“We don’t want to invest our Money in an office in Frome thanks but we’ll happily take yours in the form of getting you to advertise in a paper where we no longer have a presence”
Too many yes men happy to toe the company line rather than rock the boat and stand up for what they believe in have partly caused the sorry state the regional press in this country finds itself in however an editors role is only a temporary one and the constant looking over the shoulder until the next announcement is made must be a worrying one.
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Editors like Lynne must be wondering what to try next. Even decent newspaper people like her have been powerless to stop the rot in places like Bath and Yeovil.
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This happened to my “local” JP paper, which had survived more than 100 years until the accountants and company creeps got their hands on it.
The community never sees a reporter, has to send in its own football club reports (no sports editor on paper now) and misses stacks of good stories because it is not on the ground but 17 miles away. Worse, it fills up with more regional news because it simply cannot find enough local news.
No good can come of this change I am sorry to say despite all the bull from the management.
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I am sorry for Lynne. She has a job to protect and has to spout this nonsense if she wants to keep it. She must know what is coming.
I remember JP pulling a classic on of their offices. They said reporters should be out and about, sold pool cars and then banned reporters from claiming fuel money, while still expecting them to ensure cars for work use. And then cut staff so badly you dare not move away from computer as you had templates to fill.
You couldn’t make it up, but in their insanity they did.
Good luck with this one Lynne.
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As a local business owner I cannot say how sad I am to lose the journalist I trusted most to represent Frome in its absolute best light. I can only hope there is something or someone that will carry the torch as well as he did.
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My town’s Newsquest owned newspaper Kidderminster Shuttle closed its town centre operation after decades in the heart of the town, with editor, subs, reporters et al now part of a hub 10 miles away. It makes it very difficult indeed for it to claim to be ‘the community’s champion’ when it doesn’t even have a presence on the ground. And if not part of the community, what is the point? Could be promising location for a decent community hyperlocal operation. Good luck Lynne and all of the team in the coming months, maybe you can come up with a formula that has escaped so many others.
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