Calderdale Council Labour group leader Cllr Tim Swift has written to Johnston Press West Yorkshire MD Helen Oldham to voice concerns about future plans for the Halifax Courier and other local papers. It was confirmed yesterday that the Courier will become a weekly publication, supported by a website operation. In addition, the local offices for the Todmorden News, Brighouse Echo and Hebden Bridge Times are to close and these papers will all be produced from Halifax.
These changes are part of wider changes within the Johnston Press group of local newspapers – the Guardian has a good summary – and follow on from announcements last week about the merging of the editorial roles at the Yorkshire Post and the Yorkshire Evening Post.
In his letter, Cllr Swift says:-
I was very disappointed and saddened to hear the emerging news over the last few days about the restructuring of the Johnston Press operations in Calderdale, with the closing of the local offices and the restructuring of the Courier as a web-based publication with a weekly print edition.
I have been aware for some time of the pressures that local papers generally are under, and some specific issues for Johnston Press, and know there have been rumours of changes like this for a while, but I still want to voice my concerns about the implications this will have for local democracy and for local communities.
Like most Calderdale councillors, I have had my differences at times with the way the Courier reports particularly stories; but equally I have always recognised that it is the most important strand of local news and debate for Calderdale residents. We are not well served by coverage from other media, with both BBC Radio Leeds and to some extent the Yorkshire Post only giving occasional coverage to major stories – which is not the same as the regular, on-going dialogue offered by a genuinely local paper.
This is bound to change with the move to weekly print publication. I am sure you will have looked at the demographic implications, but I suspect that the readership of your on-line publication will be very different from the profile of those who presently buy the print edition.
Moving to the local weekly papers, whilst I understand trhat they will continue, I will watch with interest and concern to see if there is a loss of their distinctive identities. It seems to me that the local offices helped to shape papers that very much reflect their communities – the Brighouse Echo in particular is a very different paper from the Tod News – and it will be a great pity if that distinctiveness is lost. And whilst as very local papers they often need to carry very small community stories, it’s important to record that on occasions they have still been capable of important and significant original reporting. I think for example of the work published through the Todmorden News some ten years ago regarding Dr Harold Shipman, which led directly to the investigation of this activities in Todmorden which may otherwise have been missed, and similarly to some of the reporting of major development schemes in Brighouse over the years which has gone well beyond a simple reproduction of press releases.
Of course, I am also concerned about the further loss of jobs and particularly of journalism posts. I believe the local paper has always been an important training ground for journalists, and wonder what the future opportunities will be?
I understand that economic times are generally difficult, and that the newspaper industry in particular is facing massive challenges; but please do not doubt my grave concern about the implications of a reduction in local press provision for our community.
If there are any areas which we could helpfully explore together to try to mitigate the impact of any current or proposed changes, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss them with you.
