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Editorial boss accuses rivals of ‘going back’ on investigations and crime coverage

Toby Granville 1A regional editorial boss has accused rival publishers of failing to adequately invest in investigative journalism and crime coverage.

Newsquest editorial development director Toby Granville has made the claim while affirming his own group’s commitment to the specialisms.

Speaking in an interview for the Salisbury Journal’s On Point podcast, Toby discussed the launch of the True Crime Newsquest YouTube channel and the recruitment of group investigations editor Mark Williams-Thomas.

He also discussed the publisher’s print and digital strategies.

Toby, pictured, said: “The investment into investigative journalism has gone back for other publishers.

“I am still very passionate about investigative journalism, and I think there is an enormous need for this type of journalism, but it takes a lot of work.

“We can already see with having Mark Williams-Thomas on board that there is so much interest.

“On the True Crime channel, we already have 7,000 subscribers and we get the video and live broadcasts which get 50,000 views on those videos. We are also venturing onto other digital platforms.

“People want to know what is happening in court, so we invest in court reporters, but not all publishers do this, so we make sure every one of our titles has a court reporter.”

Discussing Newsquest’s strategy, he added: “We want to make sure that we can sustain the newspapers, and the Journal sells thousands of newspapers a week.

“Unfortunately, print costs are so expensive. So, it is difficult to sustain, hence why we are broadening into digital subscriptions for websites.

“People can subscribe to a lot of our newsletters, but the print product is here to stay for as long as we can.”