The row over Olympic press passes for local papers has erupted again after a group editor claimed smaller papers have been ignored.
Last month, HTFP revealed that that Newspaper Society had brokered an agreement with Olympic organisers for 39 press passes for local and regional papers.
But Andrew Parkes, group managing editor at Newsquest South London, is still not happy with the deal, saying free weeklies in particular have been left out.
He said his group of titles had not been given any extra passes in the agreement and his papers had just one pass to cover Hampton Court and one for Wimbledon.
Andrew, who was one of the editors involved in campaigning for better access to London 2012 for local newspapers, said: “We ran a campaign to highlight the debacle regarding the lack of passes for the local press.
“This led to the BOA handing out a stack of passes to regional dailies and paid-fors, but continuing to ignore the free weeklies. We got nothing more at all.
“All I’ve still got for all my titles is one pass to Hampton Court and one to Wimbledon. In the meantime other editors have contacted me to express their amazement and delight at suddenly receiving passes to all venues.
“Greenwich is an Olympic venue but has the Greenwich News Shopper got anything – no. Has any News Shopper title received anything – no.”
Initially, the British Olympics Association had wanted most regional titles to take their coverage from the Press Association, with only a handful of local papers succeeding in gaining individual accreditation.
But the BOA has agreed last month to widen press access following a campaign by a number of local titles and behind-the-scenes lobbying by the Newspaper Society.
It agreed to allocate 22 reporters passes and seven photographers passes to regional newspapers and groups, plus ten venue-specific passes to newspapers based around the main venues in London and Weymouth.
In a deal brokered by the NS, the successful applicants will share copy with the rest of the industry in a pooling arrangement similar to the Royal rota used to cover Royal visits.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has also come in for criticism from Andrew after explicitly promising his papers they would get passes.
Mr Johnson told Newsquest’s thisislocallondon.co.uk website last September: “It is not a question of we will get the reporters in, but how many.”
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Presumably all the Olympic passes allocated for free-sheets went to the Evening Standard.
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I’ve tried to be indignant about this but it just doesn’t work.
If I was dishing out passes for an international event, I’d skip over the free weeklies too.
What possible purpose would it serve to have someone from the Greenwich News Shopper reporting the 100m final? Get real.
If it needs coverage, watch the telly like the rest of us or get one of Newsquest’s regional staff to copy you in.
You don’t need to be in the stadium to report on local reaction to it.
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You’re a weekly free sheet mate. What exactly will having a reporter there tell your readers which they wont already know?
I know when I want to find out about the Olympics the News Shopper will be my first port of call!
A jolly for you and the newsroom me thinks.
Yes you can report on the impact on residents before/during/after the games but I fail to see what having passes to events will actually give you?
Your job is not to report the result of the volleyball or long jump to your readers but how the extra tourists and revenue (or lack there of) is impacting them.
Wind your neck in and focus on your job.
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He can get the pictures via the other editors in his group with all those passes, surely?
Ever heard of Rota passes? Must be similar.
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amazing how out of touch so-called journos can be with the real world.
Who on earth is relying on a freesheet for Olympic coverage? There will be so much saturation coverage even sports fans will be sick of it.
Suspect this is crying over loss of freebie trip to Olympics.
Go find some grass roots news- that’s what you’re for!
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I kind of agree with everyone else. What would you do with the pass other than just enjoy the sport? A free weekly would get more from being outside the venues.
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Yet to see how this is anything more than wanting a very nice perk to a global event. Copy and pix are being pooled – so the big groups can pass around what they want and liaise in advance on particular needs. Although why you would fill precious space in a free paper with what was on telly, online, and in the nationals a couple of days ago is beyond me.
If you have local athletes, the best way is to engineer an invite to watch down the pub or in homes with their friends and families, and then write a colour piece with pix. Proud mums and aunties is the way forward. You can always use a photo or two from the pooled coverage to complete the package.
Time spent considering whether Andy Murray will win a medal, in between stroking your official Olympics pass, would be better used covering the real courts.
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Given Andrew Parkes’ last brush with publicity was an ill-judged column advocating the return of capital punishment maybe he should keep his views to himself.
I agree with all of the above – a weekly freebie having a reporter at the event would do nothing for readers. It’s them you should be thinking of.
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I agree – people will get their Olympic coverage from the wall-to-wall (and highly expensive) coverage on BBC and the following morning in their daily paper. By the time News Shopper gets stuffed through their letterbox the whole thing will be history.
These local journos are simply feeling sorry for themselves because they won’t get some free tickets.
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Isn’t this the same lot that tried to sack off its sports and leisure desk?
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Actually the coverage on local papers looks pretty good to me.
Visit http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/olympics
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Dave Hill – did you scroll down the page to the News Shoppers readers’ poll on Olympic fervour?
13% ‘feel part of the Olympics'; 34% say no; 46% say it’s a waste of money and 7% don’t care.
None of the site’s Olympics stories appears in the ‘most read’ list. That suggests readers prefer a more traditional diet of who head-butted a teacher, where a poisonous spider was found, and a good dose of what the local crims have been up to.
Perhaps an Olympics-free newspaper is the way forward to cheer everyone up. There’s no point in covering stuff the majority of your readers are already bored to tears with.
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Everyone assumes that all the other coverage of the olympics will suffice for a local paper.
Who said anything about covering the 100m final? What about local athletes from south London? PA going to cover a story about a man who came eighth in the semifinals?
If this event was on your patch and you weren’t given passes, what would you do. Sit there and take in PA?
I imagine you would be as annoyed as this guy.
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If a bloke comes eighth in the 100m semi final, PA isn’t going to feed copy about it. Agreed.
The fact that he is from South London means that the South London media would report he came eighth and his reaction to that etc.
They would go about it in exactly the same way as the weeklies will have to do if the bloke lives in Rhyl or Doncaster etc- as they don’t have a press pass either.
You seem to be arguing they can’t possibly do it without being there when, if the Games were in Tokyo, the South London media would pick it up like everyone else.
Just because the stadium is on their patch doesn’t mean they should get special treatment – at the expense of much larger and more important publications.
You’re right that I too would be annoyed and upset at missing out on an Olympic jolly. I’d get over it though.
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