A group of volunteers who underwent a six-week course in basic journalism have set up a new bi-monthly newspaper.
In The Community: Dunstable has been put together by a group of five volunteers aiming to highlight ‘positive news’ about the Bedforshire town.
The new paper is a result of a six week course provided by Home Counties Community Media, with funding from The Learning Partnership, which aimed to improve the media skills of those interested.
Participants were taught basic principles of journalism, including ethics, article writing, interviews, editing and layout, before putting their knowledge into practice.
The front page of In The Community: Dunstable’s first edition
Three of the students also worked towards an Arts Award qualification.
Approximately 10,000 copies of the first edition covering August and September were distributed via shops and businesses, and posted to homes in Dunstable.
Martin Steers, managing editor and project manager from HCCM, said: “It has been a great project to work on and the volunteers have done a fantastic job.
“The first edition looks really good, and we’re looking forward to the future of the newspaper.”
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Brilliant Idea! Why cant stressed out and disillusioned JP staff do the same. No training required. If this happened on every JP patch then the company would be finished as far as weekly papers go, which is what they probably want anyway.
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So. mortgage providers, utilities, supermarkets etc now accept Arts Award qualifications as a valid form of payment? Then I too look forward to the future of this newspaper as, I’m sure, do the journalists at the Herald and Post or Dunstable Gazette!
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OLIVER:
I was thinking more about journalists/photographers from sinking and under resourced JP papers doing this. The state that JP weeklies are in is a disgrace and circulation in falling through the floor. JP would have us believe that print is dying when in reality it is being murdered. I know that people want a QUALITY local weekly paper but staff are having their hands tied and not being allowed to put out a quality product. In my town a new paper staffed by the talented people trapped in the JP offering would sell very well. Time to act before it’s too late!!
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A cursory scan of Dunstable’s new ‘newspaper’ reveals it to be filled with poorly written council press releases that have been cut & pasted; a welcome by a managing editor who has failed to proof read his own copy; rambling essays masquerading as journalism; ancient reviews of events long past; and no actual news that hasn’t come from a council.
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Stage review
What do you expect?
They’ve had a crash course in ‘ how to write proper’
It’s being run on a budget,no real journalists ,reliant on press releases and non professional copy,staffed by volunteers who presumably can come and go as they feel fit, sounds like it’s lacking subs,the copy numbers are approximate and it’s design leaves a lot to be desired
…..so basically just like the rest of the regional press.
Good luck to those prepared to give it a go
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Digital Dead Horse, I’m with you on the issue of regional publishers bleeding the industry dry. I just think that no matter who provides the news content for an alternate model deserves to be paid properly, whether they’re students, local ‘celebrities/experts’, or fully-qualified journalists and freelancers.
In regard to quality, you’ve fallen foul of my pet-hate which is referring to the newspaper as your product. It isn’t. Your news is! And people want to read that via the medium which is most convenient to them. Not all of your readers want a quality newspaper; what they want is quality news.
Yes, free content from volunteers and students certainly helps the bottom line when the digital revenue doesn’t, at present, stack up. However, if the quality of this news is poor, as suggested by @stage_review, there’s little hope for that to improve and therefore the audience, in print or online, will never grow enough to become sustainable.
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Oliver. I sgree with your sentiments but i feel you have mis read my comments, or more likely I have not put myself across properly. What i am trying to say is that the state big companies have left our local weeklies in has not been missed by the public and it has driven some to open their own papers. It proves that if properly managed, funded and resourced that there is still a lot of life left in them yet. I believe the best hope for stressed out journalists and impoverished photographers is to jump ship before its too late and set up their own quality papers. The recent opening of a new paper by an ex JP editor seems to be working. Lets face it the amateur effort we are talking about here will still probably outsell the big house weekly rag. JP, TM et al just dont have a clue and are still flogging the dead digital horse! Staff have their hands tied and are stressed and over worked while sales plumett.. its time for an uprising.
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DDH, I agree that there’s still some life in print yet, away from regional ownership but you can’t dismiss digital as a dead horse. It makes a lot of money for the likes of JP and TM and, although I still don’t agree with much of their approach, is it the only growing revenue stream.
Regardless of what some people say about ‘proper investment’, print is on an irreversible decline and digital revenue, while growing, is certainly not growing fast enough under the JP and TM models to fill that void.
The result will naturally lead to more amateur efforts at newspapers but, unless they have a digital strategy too, they will slowly wither away and die alongside the more established print titles.
We don’t need a 21st Century business model for local newspapers, we need one for local news!
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