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Recovery on hold: The year in regional journalism 2022

At the end of last year’s HTFP review of the journalism year, I posed the question whether the ‘post-Pandemic bounce’ that saw a regional press jobs boom in 2021 would herald a lasting upturn in the industry’s fortunes – or prove to be another false dawn.

Well, the jury is still out on that one. Twelve months on, the ongoing digital transformation of the industry is continuing apace, with commercial publishers and the BBC alike announcing major new investments in both products and people over the course of 2022.

But with the cost-of-living crisis and the UK’s brief and disastrous flirtation with Trussonomics blowing a chill wind through the wider economic environment, it has inevitably been accompanied by an element of retrenchment, with some sections of the industry seeing a return to the cutbacks of previous years.

And with the recession forecast to continue into 2024, many regional journalists will be approaching the New Year with a good deal less optimism than was the case 12 months ago.

The first signs of this retrenchment came fairly early on in 2022 with the revelation that publisher National World was operating a voluntary redundancy scheme which appeared to be targeted at its longest-serving journalists.

It resulted in a clutch of editors originally appointed in a drive to restore individual editors to individual titles at the start of 2021 all eventually leaving the business.

Elsewhere Reach plc opened a voluntary redundancy scheme to story editors working in production roles across its regional titles in a scaling back of its print operation following a reduction in pagination.

The same publisher later announced a second voluntary redundancy scheme ahead of strike action by the National Union of Journalists over pay, although the dispute was finally settled with potentially big pay rises for the lowest-paid journalists in the group.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, with striking Reach journalists on the picket line at the company's London headquarters in Canary Wharf

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, with striking Reach journalists on the picket line at the company’s London headquarters in Canary Wharf

Both Reach and National World continued with their strategies of focusing on growing digital audiences for their big city brands following their respective rollouts of the ‘Live’ and ‘World’ brands during 2021.

National World carried out a restructure which saw existing staff offered alternative roles at its city-based ‘World’ titles while Reach created a ‘Network Newsroom’ that saw journalists working across multiple titles.

Reach also launched a set of targets under which some of its journalists were asked to generate increases of up to 70pc in online page views by the end of the year – which, appropriately enough, became the most-viewed story on HTFP during 2022.

Rival publisher Newsquest had previously introduced a slightly different scheme, offering bonuses for reporters who reached their page view targets.

Newsquest were also responsible for perhaps the year’s most significant industry story, with its takeover of Norwich-based Archant amounting to the biggest local media merger since Trinity Mirror and Local World combined to form what is now Reach.

The first casualties were five free newspapers which ceased print publication after Newsquest decided they were “too far gone” to survive – the Cambs Times, Diss Mercury, Thetford and Watton Times, West Suffolk Mercury and Felixstowe Extra.

There followed an exodus of senior journalists – led by chief content officer Jeremy Clifford who had lost a similar role at JPIMedia following its takeover by National World 12 months earlier.

Other editorial leaders to depart the company over the course of the year included Dave Powles (Eastern Daily Press), Brad Jones (Ipswich Star), John Elworthy (Cambs Times) and Andy Cooper (Devon Life).

One of the industry’s biggest names, Donald Martin, also bowed out as Newsquest’s Scotland group editor after a career in which he edited no fewer than five daily or Sunday titles – The Herald, Sunday Post, Glasgow Evening Times, Aberdeen Evening Express and North West Evening Mail.

Donald was succeeded at The Herald by Catherine Salmond, poached from National World title Scotland on Sunday to become the first woman editor in the Glasgow-based daily’s long history.

Also joining Newsquest was Gavin Foster, who took charge of its flagship daily The Northern Echo, with Reach plc swiftly unveiling Sophie Barley as his replacement at Newcastle-based Chronicle Live.

And the Derby Telegraph got its own dedicated editor back after two years of sharing one with the Nottingham Post, with the appointment of Sam Dimmer.

The BBC’s plans to expand its digital offering led to the year’s biggest industry political row, with its proposals for 131 new local online news roles offset by the loss of 179 posts across its TV and local radio operations.

Somewhat ironically, it had been local radio which had most clearly demonstrated the importance of local news media during the year, after then Prime Minister Liz Truss undertook a series of “car crash” interviews with BBC local radio stations.

The year drew to a close with National World launching an audacious and short-lived bid to take over its much larger regional rival Reach.

Given their respective sizes it always seemed an unlikely deal, but nonetheless, the fact it was even being contemplated at all suggests that the long-running story of regional press consolidation is still not quite done.

The most-viewed HTFP stories of 2022

1. Publisher launches new minimum page view targets for reporters

2. Former regional journalist loses cancer battle aged 39

3. National World reveals potential takeover bid for Reach plc

4. Son of famous novelist who became arts journalist dies aged 59

5. Newsquest axes five Archant directors including CEO and editorial boss

6. Publisher of three weeklies ceases trading with loss of 21 jobs

7. Regional press groups to merge as Archant is sold to Newsquest

8. Publisher’s new owner closes five papers ‘too far gone’ to survive in print

9. Work-ex student thrown out of newsroom after critical tweets about staff

10. Journalism jobs axed as publisher makes cuts to print production