There were a total of 1,597 words of copy on the front of the
Shropshire Star’s first edition on Friday July 15.
Believe me – I counted them. And that was not including the headlines, which themselves totalled another 66 words.
As you can see here, these words were contained within a total of NINE stories packed onto page one.
I’d defy anyone to find another newspaper in Britain with as much content on the front, (except its own sister paper, the Wolverhampton Express and Star).
And for the record, in the 64-page Shropshire Star there were a total of 280+ stories and three pages of TV and leisure listings on 39 news and features pages, and 67 reports and a spread of race cards on seven sports pages.
Do you like the look of it? Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan, and over the years I’ve spoken to many experienced editors who’ve almost groaned at the visual impact.
But do you know what? It provides a mass of content and value for money that works for 58,121 locals in and around Shropshire who
buy it at 42p a copy, six days a week.
And while sales have declined in recent years, they have done so at a much lesser rate than most regional dailies, slowly but steadily elevating the Shropshire Star to become the THIRD highest-selling in England.
Yes, that’s right, this evening newspaper based in Telford (population c. 170,000) now sells more than regional papers based in Birmingham (population c. 1,000,000), Leeds (c. 720,000), Sheffield (c. 520,000), Bradford (c. 467,000), Coventry (c. 305,000), Newcastle (c.259,000) and Stoke (c. 239,000), and
many other large cities.
The reasons are manifold, of course: Telford’s a growing new town; many large cities have first and second generation citizens not used to buying local newspapers; Shropshire’s a big county with sizeable towns like Shrewsbury, (although here I’d contend that all cities have several nearby towns once served by their newspapers).
Whatever the arguments, the truth is that the Shropshire Star has made few changes to its printed product since its launch in 1964, (just like its sister the Express and Star which sells 116,992 daily – England’s largest sale from a newspaper based in Wolverhampton, population c. 239,000.)
Not only few changes in design, but also few changes in editions – the Shropshire Star still has seven, based on a geographical and timed structure. And virtually no changes to its belief in live newspapers – none of its editions go to press before 9am and the latest deadline is mid-afternoon.
Long-standing editor Sarah-Jane Smith and her team provide readers with a hell of a lot of copy – most of it local; and a good chunk of this is live, on-day copy, as can be seen here in the ‘Last’ edition from July 15.
The splash changed up for a more detailed report on Rebekah Brooks’ dramatic July 15 resignation (though even the first edition managed nine pars), the major Ligus court case was updated with live copy, and there were a further four new on-day reports.
I don’t want to get too engrossed in the dying debate of live newspapers. But I do want to challenge the industry with facts: this on-day schedule and these multiple editions, together with front pages brimming with copy, an average of 16 stories per inside page and a design than uses colour sparingly, has resulted in an evening newspaper that is doing better than most.
And it’s a recipe that seems to have worked twice as well at its larger sister title.
The operation is not without its problems: there have been
job losses to cope with revenue downturns, union opposition and potential strike action.
But long live the Graham family– the owners of Midland News Association, the paper’s publishers – who believe such consistency and tradition will mean their stable titles outlast the majority of others.
Maybe, just maybe, there are one or two old tricks to be learned here.
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As a former reporter for one of the titles discussed here, I know only too well that it isn’t always a bed of roses.
Many a fine story has been scythed in order to fit into one of the innumerable front page boxes and readers aren’t always too pleased to see national splashes.
But you cannot fault their commmitment to ‘live’ copy and nobody can argue about value for money.
Their continued investment in old fashioned journalism is rightly the envy of the rest of the regional press.
I hope it continues long after every other daily title has folded or turned into a weekly advertising brochure.
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For all the scoffing about the 1950s design, both the Shropshire and Wolverhampton Stars do well because they are literally packed with relevant news and are updated through the day – just like all evenings used to when they sold better.
Maybe editors should stop worrying about redesigns and get more news in. Whatever you think of the Stars, they definitely give value for money in terms of time taken to read them.
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Steve Dyson’s review of the Shropshire Star is bang on target. I first saw it during the famous Shropshire siege when I think it had only recently been launched.As he says too many evenings have given up “live” editions in favour of bland, weekly-style issues. OK, I hear what you say, the world has changed with 24 hour news, the internet and the like. But like Steve, I believe there is still a place for the local evening that spreads its wings to the furthest corners of its circulation area. I recall in my days when Tom Henry was editor of the Manchester Evening News how the newsroom buzzed as reporters hammered out stories for that day’s editions. Even the smallest village in its vast circulation area would often be mentioned, if only in a brief. But that provided the link between the paper and its readers. You can produce the best looking paper in the world but it is the content that counts. And lots of it like the Star. It will look thrown together but what the hell if the reader likes it !
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Lots of good late-breaking copy generated by lots of reporters going out in the field and finding good stories = lots of sales. Simples, as I kept telling successive managements at the Trinity Mirror centre in the Midlands where I was joint-FoC for four years. So why did they and the bean-counters in London never get it?
And if I had a fiver for every time I’ve heard it said about the Star(s): “It looks awful, but isn’t there a lot in it?’……
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Story count is king on the old SS – but come on. it doesn’t HAVE to be quite that ugly, surely?
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A great review, I’m sure that will be a confidence boost to all the staff writing the stories and everyone who pulls the whole thing together.
It is a very old fashioned paper – TV listings are still on pages 2 and 3 and every page has tonnes of copy on it. It isn’t just the front pages that change per edition – the Last edition is always completely different to the North Shropshire/First edition and the outlying districts also get very much their own paper with news that matters to their local area.
It is totally different to other papers and yes it doesn’t always look the greatest. But I echo the comments made here about the value of “live” newspapers reporting news as it happens.
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I still do not understand the point of daily local papers
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