A south-west county’s council is scrapping its free monthly newspaper after spending almost £700,000 on it in 11 months.

Cornwall Council said it was important to accept what was and was not working after the ‘Your Cornwall’ magazine ran £250,000 over budget.

Thisisdevon.co.uk reports that the paper has been laden with problems since its launch 11 months ago.

The initial budgeted costs were £423,000 per year and the magazine lost its first editor before a single copy had been printed.

In total 11 editions were printed which cost the newly-formed unitary authority £693,000. Established papers in the county include The Cornishman, West Briton and Falmouth Packet.

Council leader Coun Alec Robertson said: “We are serious about delivering improvements for the people of Cornwall, both in our frontline services and in the way we let people know what their council is doing.

“It is important to face up to what is and isn’t working with honesty and to take appropriate measures at an early stage where changes need to be made.

“It is clear that Your Cornwall, which was part of the former county council’s plan to improve the way it communicated with the public, is not working and is costing too much.

“Letting people know about the services that their council can offer them and how they can access those services is still very much a priority for us.

“We are taking a very pragmatic view of communications and are keen to make best use of existing outlets that our residents are already familiar with, such as local newspapers…..rather than setting up costly new channels of communication.

“We believe that taking out a page or two in local newspapers on a quarterly basis would allow us to be much more focused on local issues.”

Comments

Anon (21/07/2009 10:51:51)
Many people in Cornwall have campaigned from the beginning against what was nothing more than a propaganda newsletter for the council.
It has been a total waste of council tax. I cannot understand why the authority and others in the country for that matter, cannot accept that fact.

Steve Hutchings (05/08/2009 09:55:53)
I was particularly interested in this story because I actually attended the initial interviews for the post of editor. Naturally, as a journalist, I was interested in producing an independent, news worthy publication. It goes without saying that I, therefore, did not get the job but I thought at the time that the whole situation had not been properly thought through and I find it illuminating and unsurprising that the first editor departed before the first issue. I would be delighted to hear his/her side of the story.