Civil war on Trinity editors’ blogs

Posted by Martin Stabe on 19 March 2007 at 16:35
Tags: Croydon Advertiser, Harrow Observer, Harrow Times, Newsquest, Reading Chronicle, Trinity Mirror, Uxbridge Gazette

Normally it’s newspaper editors who worry about the trolls who lower the tone in the comments sections of their blogs. At Trinity Mirror’s newspapers in southern England, however, something unusual is happening: the editors are too busy trolling each others’ sites to worry about insults from outsiders.

Trinity Mirror Southern’s editors have all been blogging for a few months now, but recently seem to have specialised in posting their Schadenfreude over their stablemates’ travails.

Adrian Seal of the Uxbridge Gazette, for example, blogged his amusement over by a post by Simon Jones of the Reading Chronicle, who has lost a recent recruit from Down Under just months after “making a great song and dance” about how the Australian reporter had allegedly chosen to join paper rather than the award-winning Croydon Advertiser.

The Advertiser’s editor, Ian Carter, is also amused by this turn of events and describes Jones’ claims that the antipodean hack had picked the Chronicle over his own paper as “a gross distortion of the truth”.

Carter also notes that Lindsay Coulson of the Harrow Observer “is gleefully ignoring the unwritten rule that exists between most local papers by routinely rubbishing her rival’s front pages and sticking the boot into all and sundry”. On her own blog in Harrow, Coulson replies to her critics’s criticism of her criticism of the (thankfully, Newsquest-owned) Harrow Times.

But don’t think the readers aren’t taking part in all this heckling. When Seal (we’re back in Uxbridge, now) expressed his satisfaction with “another strong edition” of the Gazette, someone called A. Reader jumped right in:

“another strong edition” - such modesty! Perhaps you should leave it to your readers to be the judge of that. The thing I find irritating about the Gazette is the obvious details that seem to get missed out - e.g. the story on your site just now about the car dealer who assaulted a 74 year old. What was his sentence? It’s basic who, when. why, what, where stuff! And let’s not get started on all the typos (in headlines even) week in and week out!

And which paper do you edit, anonymous “reader”?

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Watching Newsquest

Posted by Martin Stabe on 12 June 2006 at 14:34
Tags: Journalism, Newsquest

Newsquest Watch, a new blog dedicated (obviously) to monitoring the goings-on at the Gannett-owned regional newspaper group, has been launched.

In a welcome message, the blogger, one Stevie D, writes:

I am a concerned individual based in the UK with considerable knowledge of this firm, which is part of Gannett. I believe that any business which plays such a vital role in communities up and down the country should be accountable. We’ll highlight the profits they make, their employment practices and the way they have cut back on local newsgathering in the name of greed.

Stevie D? Surely this concerned individual is the disgrunted journalist from Blackpool who was writing about his “local Newsquest fiefdom” under the same moniker a few months ago?

Well worth watching.

More Northcliffe titles on the block?

Posted by Martin Stabe on 15 March 2006 at 12:39
Tags: Aberdeen Press & Journal, Archant, Johnston Press, Kent and Sussex Courier, Newsquest, Northcliffe, Trinity Mirror

Daily Mail and General Trust may be looking to sell more of its Northcliffe regional newspapers, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The Kent and Sussex Courier is reported to be on the block, with possible suitors including Trinity Mirror and Gannett the American parent of the Newsquest group.

After pulling the entire Northcliffe group off the market last month after attracting lower-than-expected bids, DMGT is also rumoured to be flogging the Press & Journal in Aberdeen, stoking the idea that it is looking to break up its regional newspaper group.

Johnston Press, Gannett, Trinity Mirror and Archant are all reported to be interested in the Scottish broadsheet.

Across the Northcliffe group, advertising revenue was down 7 per cent in the five months to February, according to a DMGT trading update released today.

Newsquest hack vents after payday change

Posted by Martin Stabe on 13 March 2006 at 11:27
Tags: Journalism, Newsquest, Northcliffe, Regionals

At least one current Newsquest staffer is unimpressed by his employers’ decision to change payday without consultation. “Stevie D” from Blackpool writes:

On Friday, with no warning, I and my dwindling band of colleagues were called to an ‘urgent’ announcement at the head office of our local Newsquest Ffiefdom. Several people, myself inclued, were told that their positions were to dissapear. We don’t even get the pay-off that comes with redundancy - we just get another job, in another town, more than likely on a lower wage.

Stevie isn’t a big fan of regional newspapers generally, it seems:

You’ve probably never heard of Johnston Press, Newsquest, Trinity-Mirror or Northcliffe but the chances are that one of these massive companies produces at least one newspaper in your home town

It’s probably a pretty scraggy effort. A few stories about cats, perhaps the scantest and most uncritical look at what the people you voted in to run your local council are up to. A sports page, probably something grim about crime on the front.

It will make a big song and dance about its ‘community role’ but when you phone up asking for a photographer to cover an important community event you’ll probably discover that he the one snapper left is shared with two or three other publications. Ask for a reporter and you’ll discover there is only one and they are chained to their desk writing an advertising supplement to raise a little more revenue. Ask to speak to the editor and you’ll probably discover they are based 30 miles away and also handle four other newspapers.

Stevie says journalists axed from Northcliffe papers shown that regional newspaper journalists can now start up their own titles fairly easily, pointing to the Cheltenham-based Compact and the Clifton Chronicle. Stevie clearly doesn’t plan to stick around very long himself: He’s busy writing up a business plan.

Hacks are the Weakest Link

Posted by Martin Stabe on 2 March 2006 at 15:22
Tags: Archant, Heat, Journalism, Wiltshire Times

Archant Norfolk editor Terry Redhead appeared on The Weakest Link. Dismissed in the first round, Redhead was spared the ritual abuse doled out by the BBC gameshow’s famously rude host, Anne Robinson.

Redhead is hardly the first hack to try his hand at the game. Wiltshire Times reporter Craig Evry appeared on the show in 2003. Robinson, a long-time Fleet Street columnist, told Evry, then 25, he should already be working for a national.

That same year, Heat editor Mark Frith appeared on the celebrity edition. As Dog reported at the time, fellow contestant Edwina Currie told the audience: “Anne asked me if I fancied Mark. Any woman would — he’s not only charming and good-looking, but intelligent.�? Robinson swiftly responded: “Get off! I spotted him first.�?

Goldman Sachs: Northcliffe valuations were ‘very rich’

Posted by Martin Stabe on 22 February 2006 at 11:05
Tags: Newsquest, Northcliffe

A new report by an investment bank says Gannett was lucky not to have acquired Northcliffe newspapers, Editor & Publisher reports.

Goldman Sachs says the American newspaper group, which owns the Newsquest regionals in the UK and was one of the bidders for Northcliffe, was fortunate that Daily Mail and Gerneral Trust decided to withdraw the sale. Given the reported pricetag of £1.3 to £1.5 billion, the bank’s report says, “we are happy that Gannett did not ‘win’ this asset, as these valuations are very rich, even in the context of potential synergies.”

Goldman Sachs now expects Gannett to be cautious as it turns its acquisitive attention to the American chain Knight Ridder, which has also been on the auction block.

Putting newspaper profits in context

Posted by Martin Stabe on 17 February 2006 at 16:05
Tags: Newspapers, Newsquest, Regionals

Reporter Mark Schaver of the The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, has spotted some interesting facts putting American newspaper owners’ profits in context.

On the top of the pile, we find the owners of the UK’s Newsquest group:
Gannett: 32%
Washington Post: 23%
Knight Ridder: 20%
New York Times: 18%
ExxonMobil: 16%

His source is an article in Forbes magazine about “Those Rapacious Media Companies�.

Why is everybody so worried about Craig Newmark again?

Report: Cinven out of Northcliffe race

Posted by Martin Stabe on 7 February 2006 at 09:46
Tags: Johnston Press, Newspapers, Newsquest, Northcliffe, Regionals

The private equity group Cinven is out of the Northcliffe stakes, according to the Times.

That leaves Newsquest owners Gannett, Johnston Press, Candover, Providence, and CVC in the running.