Two of the UK’s last remaining evening newspapers are to switch from on-the-day to overnight printing with the loss of 29 jobs.
The News & Star in Carlisle – current holder of the Regional Daily Newspaper of the Year crown – is set to go overnight along with its Barrow sister title the North West Evening Mail.
Robin Burgess, chief executive of the family-owned CN Group which publishes both titles, says the move will give them “a longer shelf life.”
The plan involves outsourcing the distribution of all CN Group’s newspapers and magazines, putting all the group’s van drivers at risk of redundancy.
Those at risk include 19 drivers at the group’s Carlisle subsidiary Cumbrian Newspapers, nine at Furness Newspapers in Barrow and one at J Catherall & Co in Hexham, where the Hexham Courant is based.
A formal consultation period with all staff affected has now begun, with other staff to be consulted about changes in work patterns if the proposal is adopted.
Robin said the proposal would provide longer “shelf life” for the daily titles and allow newsagents to rationalise their morning and afternoon delivery rounds into one.
He said: “Both these changes should help us maintain copy sales of the News & Star and North West Evening Mail in difficult times.
“The print time would also allow us to outsource distribution, using the same distribution network as the national papers and save a considerable amount from our costs.”
However Robin also admitted the proposal was put forward with a degree of sadness.
He added: “These are positive moves to help secure the role all our titles play in their local areas, but it is sad because if we do go ahead we will be losing our drivers, many of whom have worked with us for many years.”
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Unfortunately, having a ‘longer shelf life’ does not translate into more sales or satisfied readers as most ‘former evening newspaper’ editors will tell you.
What’s next Robin, filling the papers with only ‘happy stories’ that no one wants to read?
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Sad news. The most fun, best experience, and hardest work I have done has been been meeting evening paper deadlines. Nothing like getting news out same day and sometimes scooping nationals.
Sorry guys, but next day is second best. Take a look at the terrible sales for some who went the same way.
Good luck though.
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Easy to carp, but CN Group isn’t a faceless corporate, it’s independent with a long standing family stake in the business. Robin Burgess knows full well what this step means, but if he wants his business to survive he will have to take unpalatable steps occasionally. Those who run family businesses not only have to contend with everyday challenges, but also with the judgmental weight of their forebears on their shoulders. I wouldn’t fancy that kind of pressure.
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Sadly it’s all too inevitable these days as getting rid of drivers, and the fleet of delivery vans if they own/hire them, is an easy cost-cutting exercise for newspaper owners.
But exevening is right when he/she says that sales will suffer as a result – particularly if they go down the suicidal ‘digital first’ approach of other papers.
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The world has moved on, radio, TV, t’internet, mobile news.
Local news and adversing is important not scooping the nationals once a year if you are lucky.
It may be sad for some but it is as inevitable as will be dropping the Tuesday Thursday and Saturday Issues.
Hark back to the beginning of most regional titles ,they were all weeklies.
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Shame to lose the vans, and more importantly the drivers. When the livery is no longer seen about the locality, then presence is diluted. Who would know that Yorkshire Post Newspapers is in the centre of Leeds? Buildings and vans are/were great advertising opportunities for the product. I appreciate that Robin Burgess acknowledges sadness at losing loyal staff though.
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This is soooo sad. Best newspaper company to work for of the lot, in my opinion. The move probably won’t work for circulation, Robin, but good luck anyway – at least you’ve still got the printing press, so you can change your mind when big things happen!
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Gang of four. Hope I don’t sound tetchy but the evening paper I loved working for scooped the nationals just about every week, sometimes several times a week. It had big stories, national, international and local on the streets at 5 pm, when the nationals were still putting their paper together.
I recognise the damage web news has done, but doesn’t that make it imperative that papers get their news out (print) asap , i.e. that day instead of next day?
This seems a good firm and I wish them luck as a next day paper if circumstances have forced the decision.
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Let’s all be entirely honest here. If regional daily newspapers did not exist, who would invent them? Regional and local news is best served, in the modern era, by a combination of:
1. A bumper weekly, carefully curated newspaper aimed at delivering the last seven days’ worth of news in one sitting, combined with in-depth features and considered analysis.
2. A 24-hour rolling website service with top headlines delivered for free and paid-for by advertising, with a paywall for the rest of the day’s news/sport and longer features.
3. Subscription-based smartphones and tablets which give readers all of the day’s news and sport.
4. Specialist websites and apps which are based around specific football teams, events and so on.
That way everyone is catered for, journalism doesn’t suffer and journalists can get on with doing what they do best: reporting. Whether it’s in paper, web or app form, written journalism still has a strong future, done right.
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Have to agree with exevening. I too worked on daily evening papers when they were indeed printed the same day. What a buzz beating the deadlines and scooping the nationals. Brought out the best in us. Also great fun. Oh hum!!
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The buzz of scooping the national might have been nice for journalists but A) we’re in a world of 24-hour news where most things are on the internet long before they’re in print, whether via a newspaper’s website or other means and B) a nice buzz never put food on the table.
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Stan Szecowka, surely ‘happy stories’ or something at least positive, innovative and inspiring has to be better than the crime wave of muggers, rapists, perverts, brawlers and paedos served up by the News and Star on a daily basis!
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Fiddling while Rome burns.
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Will just mean even more visitors to the website, which is pretty awful to be fair. Spot the news article among the adverts.
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What this article fails to point out is that, while the two newspapers are referred to as ‘evening newspapers’, they are both on the streets mid-morning.
However, overnight printing will see them lose the vital breaking stories in the early hours of the day.
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