Fishburn Hedges

18.11.2011

Scandal resulting from the Leveson enquiry continued to hit the headlines this week across the majority of national papers.  With high-profile witnesses of phone-hacking and press intrusion starting to give evidence this coming Monday for the next two weeks, it looks like the morality of the UK media will continue to be under the spotlight for some time yet.  Many believe it will cast great doubt on the industry’s ability to police itself, which could lead to changes in how news can be reported in the press.  However, Ken Clarke disagreed with this in his speech at the Society of Editors national conference on Monday, saying that newspapers must not ‘underestimate the crisis of confidence’ that they face but nobody is seriously ‘threatening the freedom of the British press’.

The regional press have also had a testing week, with Trinity Mirror Midlands announcing the closure of three local newspapers - the Chase Post, Stafford Post and Sutton News, which will each publish their final editions this week.  Johnson press, publisher of the Yorkshire Press and the Scotsman, also announced a declining circulation and revenue,  and has started talks with lenders over refinancing its debt early next year.  Closures of regional papers only points towards the Press Association being an even more important avenue to communicate with regional audiences.

The Evening Standard and Independent announced the new structure of their media teams this week.  Along a similar lines to regional cut backs, this controversial merger puts a possible 20 jobs at risk, reducing the numbers of journalists across both publications.  The Evening Standard will lead on business coverage across both titles, headed up by James Ashton whilst the Independent will lead on sports coverage, with Neil Robinson being named as head of sport.  Whilst both newspaper editors are claiming that each paper’s ‘DNA’ will remain distinct, this move undoubtedly raises questions around how this can possibly be achieved with the same staff working across both titles.  Watch this space…

Finally, the Guardian’s desire to lead the way in digital journalism has been further proved this week, with the announcement of their ‘digital first’ strategy, due to launch in the New Year.  The campaign aims for consumers to ‘envisage the brand as being positioned beyond print into the world of international digital journalism’.  While the general move towards online and away from traditional print media is undisputed, they have set themselves a very high target, of doubling their digital revenues to nearly £100 million by 2015.