A former weekly deputy editor is to launch a new digital magazine targeted at older people.
Retirement-news.co.uk is the brainchild of Alex Finkenrath, who began his journalism career in the 1980s on another innovative start-up, Bedfordshire on Sunday.
The site will provide a weekly updated digest of relevant news as well as a platform for readers to generate their own content.
It will have a particular focus on learning and leisure, with information on senior sports, third age education and hobbies
Said Alex: “Despite our ageing population the internet seems unfairly weighted towards younger users. We wanted to provide a site which cuts though the information overload for older users, gathering the directly relevant news in one place.
“We also wanted to avoid just running lifestyle pieces and to provide an investigative outlet specialising on the issues and challenges affecting UK retired people.
Alex cites the late Frank Branston, who started BoS, as one of his main inspirations. “He was an uncompromising journalist but a businessman with a conscience,” he said.
“I was lucky enough to work for other inspiring editors in my time, notably Steve Lowe, also from BoS and Mark Edwards, now at the Peterborough Evening Telegraph who mentored me through my NCTJ training. Both these men put news first and gave reporters the room and support to follow up and land stories.”
After rising to the rank of deputy editor, Alex left BoS to go freelance in 1994, although he returned to the paper as part-time group sports editor in 2007.
He has also worked in PR for Paragon Communications and as group publications editor for the building group Laing.
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Good luck. Might well work if its sticks to lifestyle. As a computer-literate retired hack I do know “oldies” (and most other people for that matter) will not switch on their computer to read local (and in many cases national)news It’s not that they can’t; it’s just that they can’t be bothered. There is enough 24-hour TV and radio for that.
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Pretty negative dontyaluvit! Well done Alex, not all of old wrinklies are too lazy to get up, dressed and switched on in the morning. The future is digital.
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Best of luck to them. But I have my doubts. As an advertiser of a poduct aimed at older people, I am constantly being pitched to by ‘retirement’ websites (they want my ad budget). Without exception, they are bland, poorly built, and you only have to look at the forums to see that they are used by very few people and infrequently. The only advertisers interested are molility companies. Will this effort be any different? Also, as a 36 year old with a few niche interests, I am quite capable of searching the internet and seeking out content that is relvant to me. I don’t have to have it aggregated and spoon-fed to me. Today’s retired population (those who choose to go online) are more web savvy than ever and it’s a bit patronising to suggest that they aren’t capable of doing the same themselves. Here’s a bit of news – older people aren’t just interested in ‘retirement issues’, there’s more to life than that.
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Greybeard I didnt say any of that and I wished him luck. My point was that older people CAN use computers and websites. They just don’t WANT to click on for their local news when there is saturation on tv and radio already. Low hit levels on local papers (many of whom have an older readership) prove the point. That’s why I suggested a lifestyle site might have more chance. Negative?
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All comments gratefully received. I agree that people do not suddenly stop being interested in general news and society the night that they retire. We will listen to the readers and they will set the agenda.
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