Regional publisher Johnston Press is set to relaunch one of its weekly titles with up to 75pc of content coming from the local community.
The Local in Bourne, Lincolnshire, will be relaunched as “the people’s paper” in a move which is set to dramatically increase the amount of user-generated content in the title and could see readers writing stories directly onto pages.
The paper claims to be the first in the country to begin such a trial, which has been nicknamed “the Bourne Experiment”, and the reinvention of the weekly is set to begin at the end of this month.
It is understood that if the move is a success, it could be rolled out as a new model for other small, weekly newspapers.
Under the initiative, local people will be invited to submit photographs, articles and reviews about the things that interest them and will even be able to add items to the pages of their local paper from their own homes using technology adopted by JP.
The company said the move was not about cost-cutting and the same number of reporters would continue to work for the paper.
Mark Edwards, JP editorial director for the Midlands and group editor of the title, said journalists would oversee the project and curate the submitted content.
He said: “The usual legal and ethical constraints will apply and so will those of public interest and relevance.
“Our journalistic resource is precious and our reporters will still be out in the town covering the key stories and issues. What we hope this project will allow us to do is cast our net wider and include more community news written by our readers – and in some cases written directly on to the pages of the week’s newspaper.
“Sections like village news and readers’ letters have always been hugely popular and this project is all about bringing the local community together, offering them the chance to contribute to the paper the kind of material they and their friends and families want to read.
“We have always worked hard to include local content: now we hope, thanks to the technology that’s available, to be able to open that door wider than ever.”
Local readers have been told about the “new era” for the title and invited to contribute.
The paper said they would be given free training to allow them to add articles to the title from home.
Material from the community is also set to appear on the paper’s website to expand its digital coverage of local news.
It is understood that around 25pc of the title currently comes from user-generated content, from items such as readers’s letters, villages news and sports roundups.
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As one who lives in Lincolnshire, I have only one comment to make: aaaaaargh!
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“People’s paper in which readers will write directly onto pages”. Expletives deleted, and much else of course. What will these newspaper monopolists think up next?
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“The company said the move was not about cost-cutting and the same number of reporters would continue to work for the paper.”
I think we know that this is a compete load of bobbins. The salary he’ll be paying the contributors just goes to show the value that Mr Highfield places on real local journalists. Zero. And the people who work for this paper are gleefully tweeting the joyous news of this experiment. It’s a bit like they’re writing their own obits.
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Abandon all hope… Have JP’s bosses never seen the mess Facebook message boards get when a few locals try to run one for their own town/village? Having those people write straight onto the page is a recipe for disaster. Nice to see how highly valued fully-trained journalists are by this company.
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“Send us your stuff for free so we can sell it back to you”
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As a JP employee I share the frustrations of the other posters. UGC is great and of course nothing new as letters and village/community correspondents have been around since the year dot (in newspaper terms, pedants). JP are currently embarking on a cull of photographers, which is no surprise to anyone after all ‘content gatherers’ were gifted smartphones earlier this year.
Working at the coalface I can tell you that at our centre, regarded as one of the most forward thinking, the amount of UGC we receive is minimal. The idea that any centre would be able to generate anywhere near 75 per cent via the readers is fanciful to say the least.
The people behind this have clearly never subbed readers’ letters or any other submitted copy. I guarantee that this experiment will prove counterproductive, especially after subs are now extinct on Planet JP.
Our industry needs saving and slicker community newsletters are not the answer.
We need change, but that requires investment.
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Sounds like The Bourne Conspiracy to me. Same number of journalist? Wonder if there will be the same bottom-line on the wage bill?
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If this wasn’t so ridiculous it would be funny.
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I’m actually quite optimistic about this.
Not because I think it’s a good idea, but because I think it may finally expose once and for all the myth of “user generated content” that the brain trust at JP seem to think is the future.
Anyone who has worked at a newspaper and read some of the comments and opinions posted online or sent in to the letters page can probably predict with a wry smile the logistical nightmare this idea will represent.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of intelligent, well-informed readers out there- it’s simple that the bulk of those who write, tweet and leave Facebook comments aren’t among them.
And some of the older heads (of which my old dad is one) will tell you that this is an old idea dressed up as something new that has proved a bit of a damp squib in the past in the form of community correspondents. Works ok for some of the small stuff but not even close to a viable alternative to a team professional journos.
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I wouldn’t be so dismissive of UGC. Interactivity is increasingly the measure of a successful media operation these days. But there has to be meat in the sandwich – ie content unavailable elsewhere which the paper generates to distinguish itself from other platforms that readers can access for free – village/town websites, football club forums etc. If that isn’t there then there is no picture show, just people talking amongst themselves in the stalls. And no one going to pay for that.
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This presumably means every semi-literate wannabe journalist and local windbag will be able to pour their rubbish straight into the pages of what is bound to be a sad travesty of a newspaper.
It’s extremely naive of JP management to assume such a system will work without major intervention by proper journalists. No self-respecting publisher would even consider such a scheme without a large measure of quality control.
Maybe the paper should be called Bourne Yesterday.
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This is what I call ‘charity shop’ journalism. Same business model as a charity shop apart from there’s no good cause involved. Journalism is about news stories. And these donations of words and pictures from the community are not news. You could just as well go and cut, copy and paste stuff off Facebook or the internet. I’ve worked at papers that specialise in this submitted content. No one sums it up better that jewellery chain boss Gerald Rattner who said: “It’s total c**p.” Get the begging bowl out. Here comes the rag and bowl man on the scrounge.
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If JP had a wrecking ball they couldn’t do more damage to the standing of their newspapers.
No wonder they are so keen to pay off many of the editorial staff they consider to be not part of the “bigger plan”.
Slash the wages, satisfy the banks who’ll be looking at the bottom line, but to hell with quality. How do they expect readers to accept this inane idea? It just shows how much (or indeed, how little) journalists are valued by this company.
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Shedding a tear for what remains of the local press now.
JP is apparently in its final death throes and the recent culling of more journalists and photographers is just a pre-cursor to papers completely run by readers.
Journalists will ‘curate’ copy and pictures – what on earth is he on about?
That’s what subs used to do. When we had them. But they were dealing with other journalists who could be told what to do and learn the job, or leave it.
Can you imagine correcting copy from a reader who thinks they know better but you can’t annoy because otherwise there will be no content?
JP doesn’t realise that those who wanted to be journalists but didn’t bother to train don’t need papers now – they populate social media spouting their illiterate opinions.
This is what Bourne can expect.
How sad.
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Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It’s good to see a publishing team doing something different. Yes, it’s a risk and it might not work but, equally, it might just come up trumps.
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Readers writing stories directly onto pages? So that’ll be pages of untruths, inaccuracies, expletives, bias, libels and advertising. Brilliant.
“The company said the move was not about cost-cutting”. Yeah, right.
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Utter, utter, utter tosh.
Having been a sub in JP until the cull, and having seen former colleagues and friends cast aside and forgotten under wave after wave of emails from the CEO speaking about nothing but ‘servicing the debt’, it’s blatantly obvious to all that this is nothing more than an exercise in making journalists feel as though their job is now worthless… leading to an uptake in the voluntary redundancies being offered at present, low morale, etc. Less journos = less money to fork out.
I’ve seen my local paper decline from one of standing and high-regard to one which is a laughing stock.
I’m glad I left the JP when I did, and jumped into a whole new sector, because with the six-figured-salaried trouble-shooters declaring such inadequate projects as this, I’d be embarrassed to say I was still a journalist.
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Will they rename the title Bourne Free?
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Is this what the readers want?
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What a brilliant and unique idea….. Of course, if you believe me then you are a fool.
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Journalists would oversee the project and curate the content, says Mr Highfield.
Well, from what I can see of user generated content there’s a heck of a lot of racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-tolerant, ill considered ranting going on.
This means journalists – those that are left – could be spending an awful lot of time checking for legals and literals and not working on stories by connecting with their local communities.
I fail to see how that makes for a fulfilling career as a journalist. Perhaps I’m wrong as the dust settles it will become clearer but at the moment it looks a bit desperate.
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Since 90 per cent (if not 100) of readers’ submissions require careful sorting out by someone who knows what they are looking at, how does this work?
As said, the ‘paper’ will become an inane laughing stock barely worth pinning on the privy door.
It’s another idiotic attempt by the people who run publishing companies theses days to produce content by formula from a production line, not for any serious news value.
They can’t see that in short order their product will be trashed, revenues will plummet and they’ll have even less money.
Would you use the services of a ‘community doctor’ or ‘community plumber’? No, nor would I – so why is a ‘community journalist’ any better?
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What could possibly go wrong?
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Years ago I had to sub the WI reports for the weekly I worked for. What a nightmare it was because everything was ‘interesting’. Surely JP can to do better than this.
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So JP think there is a market for a good, truly local paper, giving local people the news that matters to them. In that case, why are all their features produced from one centre, with the appropriate branding inserted? Why aren’t there any nicely designed feature advertising pages anymore, to generate more local advertising? Presumably this new local rag will be advertised through ads designed in India. Through their greed, JP has ruined so many genuine and profitable local papers throughout the UK and Ireland.
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This lot are leading the regional rush to oblivion, but the others aren’t far behind.
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Ironically there is a lot of good ‘UGC’ on this page
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This idiotic decision from senior JP management actually shows how out of touch with their own industry they really are.
So they’ve decided in their wisdom that the best way forward is wheel the VR axe through editorial departments, get most of their content free from their own readers and then have the nerve to sell it back to them!
“The people’s paper” they spout. Of course it is, they bloody wrote it!
If this idea wasn’t so offensive to all of JP’s hard-working editorial staff, it would be hilarious!
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As much as my thoughts go out to anyone who may eventually lose their job as a result, I really am quite keen to see how this will pan out. Like a car crash, you can’t help but look.
Perhaps it may serve as a lesson to other groups thinking of similar “new and bright” ideas. Shame it will be at the expense of talented staff and what was surely once a quality product.
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It’s been tried and failed so many times this project is doomed from the start. Upper managements deluded belief that the general public will produce reams of local news articles every week for no pay is a joke. You may get a flurry in the first couple of weeks but it will soon become a trickle of only the most dedicated self publicists.
We tried it some years ago in the hope of sacking a load of journos replacing them with the laughable community correspondents. The MD was apoplectic when he read what our new contributors were writing about. Hilariously he thought they would write about local issues. Most just wanted to write about their holidays. Management of local newspapers mostly wear clown shoes these days.
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Gosh, you’re all so negative. In the interests of balance, I’d like to put in a good word for this idea.
Unfortunately, I can’t. It’s barking. We all know what’ll happen; within a matter of hours it will fall into the hands of the unemployed, long-term sick and clinically insane, who currently produce 90 per cent of the pitifully small amount of UGC newspapers receive, and when they realise such copy is unusable anywhere other than within the padded cells of the letters page or web comments, they’ll run up the white flag and give their columns over to press releases, which will at least be literate, more or less, and non-defamatory. Which a lot of them have done for years anyway, to be fair, either overtly, or covertly by hiring reporters so poorly trained they can’t tell the difference between fact and opinion.
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I look forward to the future when I can publish my bitstrips comics directly to a newspaper!
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This will be a disaster. I could outline all the reasons why but I think they’ve been perfectly articulated by previous commenters in this thread. Very sad news indeed – and I feel sorry for the reporters on that title, who will doubtless be forced to plug it as a positive move.
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I suggest Ashley and his cohorts have a look at the web comments on many of the stories his titles publish online. The vast majority I see are rude, illiterate, offensive or plain libellous, and one of the biggest problems our centre faces on a daily basis. It’s the same for all newspaper groups. But that’s UGC for you.
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Funny how it is coinciding with voluntary redundancies, redundancies of all reception staff and the WHOLE of photographic. Not about money or staffing at all apparently. Because reporters always take such great pics on their camera phones, and joe bloggs can send in the sport pics and any other rubbish they want. JP has consistently treated its staff shockingly, so I suppose it should not come as a great surprise that they continue to shaft them right up until the bitter end. They now want to shaft the public too. Classic.
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