Endangered species: from decline at the Sunderland Echo to crisis in France

Image: NS Newsflash

Few people reading these pages will have seen the minor news item last week to the effect that the Sunderland Echo was transferring production to Sheffield, many miles down the A1 (M) with the loss of 81 jobs - including that of the editor, Rob Lawson, who may have jumped or been pushed but has gone anyway.

And fewer still will care.

It is, after all, just one more sign that by the time Lord Justice Leveson reports on press practices, we will be lucky if there is still a printed press to implement his recommendations and clean up its act.

The Sunderland Echo's publisher, Johnston Press, is even rumoured to be considering making the paper weekly instead of daily. The future of the football edition, still published every Saturday during the season, must be open once again to question.

Up to four mornings a week when in France, I walk down the hill, which is easy, to buy my copy of Var-Matin, my local edition of Nice-Matin, before walking back up the hill, with those uncountable steps - 130 or so - and a few steep bends making the return journey a lot harder.

Once a week, I will also buy Le Canard Enchaîné, a newspaper-format equivalent of Private Eye, and on some mornings I add an English newspaper, a French national or two and a magazine.

I make my little journey on foot on the days when the plan is to work, but also buy at least one newspaper on each of the other three days, almost always taking Le Figaro - with all its supplements - on Saturday, Le Journal du Dimanche on, well, Dimanche, L'Equipe when I can be bothered and other titles as required. And I pay to have Le Nouvel Observateur posted to me each week.

There is a strong professional element to this. I get lots of ideas for articles or parts of articles by reading what other journalists have written and, indeed, would find my own work impossible or much more difficult, despite the profusion of news on the internet, without them.

But I also like newspapers and magazines for their own sakes and know plenty of people who are not journalists but have, for most of their lives, bought their own fair share of publications daily, weekly and monthly. But are they still doing so?

Clearly, from the diminishing circulations I have read about, the whole industry is in trouble. Readers are deserting newspapers and making do with TV, radio and online sources, inferior or inadequate as most are by comparison with the better publications.

In France, national newspapers sell in pitifully small numbers, though magazines do somewhat better and many regional titles still seem healthy enough, though the outlook of some can be unbearably parochial.

But the major national newspaper distribution business is in crisis and seeking to impose cuts, and its workers seem intent on hastening its demise by regularly preventing newspapers being delivered around the country (even though those publications are not party to the dispute).

An online discussion of the Sunderland paper's plight, at an e-mail loop whose members may be football supporters but seem to be literate, well educated people pursuing or retired from good jobs, offered no encouragement to those of us troubled by the decline of print.

Readers concerned for the future or newspapers or journalism, and of a nervous disposition, should not read on as I offer a few thoughts from that discussion:

Andy (exiled in Russia) -

Lots of talk of the Echo going weekly. Seems to be a trend at the moment - even a city the size of Birmingham doesn't have a daily any more - and papers are really failing to sell large enough numbers (either to readers, or advertisers) ... the industry seemed to sleepwalk into the online era without considering what it was all about. I remember in 1998, on a journalism course, visiting the Daily Record's offices in Glasgow. They proudly told us that before long it would be possible to read every word of the Record online (and I'm sure it is to this day). But nobody could tell us why I'd then bother to buy a hunk of dead tree every again, if I could get the same info for free.

... Who out of us lot reads local papers? And, for the exiles, does anyone pick up the local for wherever you are now? I look at the NE locals online, but only rarely bother with the English-language Moscow papers (especially the one I used to work for!). I get my Russian news online, in both English and Russian language editions, and for international/UK news I tend to use the British websites I've always referred to (mostly BBC and Guardian). If I purchase print media now it's either a magazine to read on a flight, one of the what's on guides for Moscow (or a city I'm visiting) or the Monday morning edition of Sovietsky Sport for the weekend round-up and the 7-day fixture lists and TV guide. It's a very long time since I've handed over money for a daily newspaper of any sort, and that was probably at an airport or rail station as well.

Sheila (Wearside) -

We 'take' the Echo Monday to Saturday, although I don't actually get to 'read' it. As soon as I sit down with a cuppa and the paper, the bairn whips it out of my hands and says "no Mammy, that's Daddy's paper!" Have to say though, if I do manage to flick through it, it's mainly adverts and columns and neither holds my attention - although it's canny for the sport ...

Shame all the same, a nightly Echo has been part of my family's tradition for as long as I can remember."

Jeremy (in Canada)

I never buy a newspaper here at all. In fact I don't think that I have ever bought one in the years I have lived here. The only newspaper that I buy anywhere are the local papers. I get the local paper when I am in France, and I buy the Sunderland Echo almost religiously when I go back to the UK. almost out of a sense of loyalty more than anything, and to some extent guilt. I read the Sunderland Echo online every day without fail, but I do like the read the paper version. If I lived in the NE I probably wouldn't do the same if I am entirely honest.

Mike (USA) -

I've completely given up on local papers. The Pittburgh Post Gazette has become a mixture of disposable nonsense and syndicated fluff. Even when there is something interesting in there it's glossed over to the extent that it's simply not worth bothering about. The Tribune still has some depth to it but unfortunately that depth is mostly opinion spewed forth by the sort of people considered too right wing for Fox News; an interesting read sometimes, but too irritating to peruse every day. I do still buy the New York Times when traveling (or the Globe and Mail I suppose, next week, which is actually not a bad paper Dr J though I wouldn't want to read it every day either), and will be picking up The Guardian or The Independent every day when I'm back home. I've never been interested in the Sunderland Echo or the Northern Echo when living outside of the North-East; even 20 years ago most of the interesting content (usually football) would be picked up and run nationally precisely because it was interesting.

Me (France/UK) -

The British local newspaper industry, with notable exceptions of which the Echo on a good day is one, has all but been destroyed as a meaningful contributor to current affairs coverage. I see the Football Echo regularly and it does a decent job but, like all other pinks and greens (of which only about four remain) lost its raison d'etre as kickoff times and days were disrupted for TV. Sad to see the Echo's problems but hardly any great surprise. I am proud of having cut my teeth on local papers but they're in terminal decline. A friend from The Scotsman _ a national title of course - told me the other day even that was now below 40,000 a day.

Michael (Co Durham) -

I've never bought the Sunderland Echo in my life. I used to read the Saturday Football version now and again - about 30-40 years ago. In the 1970s, I used to read the Newcastle Evening Chronicle at work - when I worked evening shifts and was looking for another job for a short while. Other than that, I used to take a daily national, but stopped that about 20 years ago. We don't even have time to read a Sunday paper now - except on really quiet weekends. I thought I would miss reading quality analysis of world events etc, but I've found that I can live without it. I get all of my news from BBC radio, TV and online.

Paul (Co Durham) -

I go out of my way to read the Echo and Football Echo - living in Durham and working in Newcastle it's not so easy to get, but I still really like it. Obviously the sport is the main reason I buy it, but I think it's decent for local news and keeps me occupied on the bus home from work. It even has the best Sudoku!

Sad news about the move. It can only go downhill because of this, and it's probably on its way out. Disappointing for the people of Sunderland, who are a loyal readership.

Mike (Scotland) -

When I was a nipper everyone I knew used to read the Echo and for a while I
had a paper round delivering the nationals in the morning and the Echo in
the evenings ... You also had to move quickly to get the footie Echo on a
Saturday night as it always sold out very quickly.

When I moved to London I sometimes used to read the Evening Standard or the
Evening News (it was a long time ago). I always had the Guardian delivered,
I could never image breakfast without it at one time. Since we moved to
Scotland I've given up on newspapers, initially because non-one will deliver
to our street - the hill is too steep apparently. My wife gets the Southern
Reporter every Thursday, which is an award-winning local weekly - God Help
the others!

I now get my news from the Radio and the BBC web site. I can't see how local
papers can survive - at least not in the form we know them. You're not even
allowed to recycle them as chip wrappers.

Mark (Scotland) -

Too many local papers have tried to copy the nationals and have lost their identity. They need to strip back and get back to basics and get into the heart of the community. In scotland we have local journalists now based in a centralised office 50 miles from the town. Its crap. Management are obsessed with the web but the paper is the brand and brings in 90 percent of revenue. The web is great but as far as papers are concerned they don't make them money. What's the point of copying stories from paper onto web? They need to marry the two and keep them distinct. The Daily Mail has got the right idea but very few have

Ian (London) -

I've never been able to understand why papers contribute to their own sales reduction by not charging for the on-line version. The Times started it recently, I presume hoping others would follow suit but none have.

Andy in Moscow -

Because they lose viewer numbers on their websites, and therefore advertising revenue. The Times has a paywall, so I just go to any one of several hundred other news sites. I might miss a particular columnist who I like (although I didn't read the Times much in the first place, so nobody springs to mind) but I'm not paying for coverage of stories I can get for free elsewhere. It really only works if everyone does it, and even then it's very hard to stop people getting subscriptions via their work, then posting the text on forums or lists like this where it's relevant. Also, even when no cash is involved, persuading readers to register (in order to leave comments etc) is a real bind. People don't like it, and unless they feel it's a unique product they won't do it. No newspaper is sufficiently unique. As for local titles, I totally agree with those talking about the loss of a connection to the local community. My first two papers, the Mid-Devon Gazette and the Hounslow Chronicle, had High Street offices: people could drop in every day, tell a reporter their story, and we'd try to get it into something publishable. We were easy to reach, and you knew that if you phoned about your parents' 50th wedding anniversary or your granny's 100th birthday we'd get along with a photographer and do a nice little story on it. Same as the local school could drop round with a picture of the nativity play dress rehearsal, or the football team winning a cup, and we'd run that. Too many papers have shifted to out-of-town industrial estates - no passing trade, and that flow dries up. People never _see_ a reporter, and never get a chance to build any relationship with them. There are other issues though: we've got a more mobile population than ever, and it's not always easy to buy in to your new community. ...

One upbeat contribution came as a reply from Ian to Andy:

The Hounslow Chonicle is still alive Andy and a free copy will pop through my letterbox today. It's mostly house adverts but the Residents Assoc' I belong to can always get a mention of something we're doing and a reported and photographer turning up to meetings.

I have no ready answers. It may simply be necessary to be grateful to have worked in an industry that has enriched public life a lot more than it has enraged its detractors and accept that like steam engines and human-operated switchboards, it has had its day. I hope not, but the signs are not good. Maybe there is just one escape route, the examples of the London Evening Standard and Metro showing that papers will still be read - and can still be viable - provided they are free.