“There is still a great place for local papers”

In response to Raymond Snoddy’s Is there no good news on the local and regional press? article, Steve Niemiec, technical director at Laser Solutions Ltd, says if local media is not to be lost, the major players need to revitalise themselves and start producing products the consumer actually wants…

“The major problem with local newspapers is that, basically, they aren’t! One free-sheet which appears on my doorstep is called The Post. Over the last year or so there has been one and at best two local news pieces and the rest is full of advertising or syndicated garbage.

I completely understand the sales model and advertising is the only income for these papers, but unless the product is worth reading then its only value is to reline the cat litter tray.

OK, we have the net and the majority of people are on it, but there is still a great place for local papers if they are informative and genuinely useful. There is nothing wrong with the major players moving their subbing offices to regional hubs as long as they invest in local reporters and produce quality material and actually give the reader worthwhile news and lots of it. The problem is, they don’t seem to believe in journalism anymore and this is a terrible shame as this was the foundry for up and coming youngsters.

The big publishers out there seem to be totally clueless in how to produce a decent local newspaper and worse at developing their web sites. They really are dreadful and as much as they try to blame ‘market forces’ and a change in peoples reading habits, it is their short sightedness and drive for profit which is devastating local publishing.

There are incredible opportunities of local publishing, be it physical product or via the web, but these dinosaurs don’t have a clue as the only meetings they have focus on costs rather then genuine innovation. Everyone lives somewhere and therefore everyone is local. The majority of money spent is at a local level, be it a supermarket, car dealership or estate agent.

If local media is not to be lost, the major players need to revitalise themselves and start producing products the consumer actually wants. If they continue to squeeze the editorial quality and volume then this will be their downfall, brought about by themselves.”