Forum Topic

Support Your Local Newspaper

I hope the good people who run this site don't mind me putting this message up. I'm confident they won't given what I am told about their basic decency.The local chapter of the NUJ is currently balloting for industrial action for staff working for Newsquest in the South London area. This includes the Wandsworth Guardian. What is proposed is a significant number of job cuts across the area and a move to 'remote working' for many of the editorial staff. The paper is currently based in Sutton.Newsquest is owned by a Texas based media conglomerate with a CEO who is paid millions. The UK subsidiary is profitable and only needs to make these cuts to maintain the dividend growth to the parent company.This is not comparable to the opportunistic industrial action taken by overpaid tube drivers. The people who work at these newspapers are skilled professionals on relatively low wages.Many of us may no longer read a local newspaper, and I have to confess to not having picked up a copy of the Guardian for a long time. I do often read their articles online though. There is no doubt that newspapers in general have declined from their heyday but it would be wrong to say that they have lost all value to the local community and we would miss them if they were gone.We are lucky in this area to have a good independent news web site but that is nicely complemented by printed paper and so a shuttered Wandsworth Guardian or a paper produced with minimal editorial content would be bad news for us all.IF you aren't inclined to lobby on behalf of the Wandsworth Guardian by for instance writing to Sheila Boswell, Jane Ellison or Justine Greening then you could still support the local paper simply by reading it either in print and online.

David Parker ● 3226d1 Comments

Yet more cuts are planned at the Wandsworth Guardian. Newsquest, the American owned media conglomerate, which publishes the local Guardian has put all its staff but two in its South London office on notice of redundancy. Eleven posts in an already depleted news room are to be cut.Sometimes people are dismissive of the local paper but my impression was that it had improved recently with a much more independent line taken with regard to the Council.I am a huge admirer of what Sandi achieves with limited resources on this site and it seems to be the primary news source for most people in SW15 but media plurality is important and the Guardian sometimes is able to cover local stories in much more depth. Also there is no equivalent to this site in areas like Balham, Tooting and Battersea. It is important that it survives and continues to offer the best news coverage possible.It is likely that Newsquest has been prompted to make the move by a decline in revenue from local advertising particularly estate agents hit by the decline in property transactions since Brexit. What this means is that, more than ever, the paper is dependent on the notices placed in it by Wandsworth Council i.e. essentially paid for by local Council Tax payers. The Council should be using this leverage on our behalf to persuade Newsquest that they should be committing enough resources to the area to sustain a reasonable standard of journalism.https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/newsquest-south-london-puts-whole-newsroom-at-risk-of/

David Parker ● 2758d