Have We Lost Interest In Our Local Newspapers?
I have recently been hearing about how our local newspapers (in the UK) are falling into decline due to a raft of competition from various alternative media sources such as the internet.
I do not work within the media in any sense; my vocation is to do with becoming a foster parent, stammering therapy and DVD authoring.
I live in Birmingham and I am the type of person who loves to play and watch sports. Where I live we have a famous Saturday nights sports paper which arrives in the shops at around 6pm, it is called The Sports Argus and is pink in colour. This paper has been a must buy for my family for as long as I can remember and it includes all of the days football results and the latest football tables. It also has match reports from all of the local teams as well as a lot of information about other sports including the horse racing and its results. This paper will no longer be available as it appeared in the shops for the last time around three weeks ago.
A few years ago the first place to read about these results and to see the updated football divisions was via this newspaper. This is no longer the case of course. We are now able to view this information almost immediately after each football match has finished on either satellite television, the internet or even on our mobile phones. Less and less people are now purchasing this particular paper which is a shame as I had continued to do so and will miss it!
We are now also able to watch the news twenty-four hours a day if we want to and if we of course have access to satellite television. This has had a huge negative impact on the local newspaper sales. Other potential reasons for a decline in our local newspapers could include the fact that they are no longer that local, if you know what I mean. As an example some of the papers include lots and lots of national news items and only a few about local stories and events. The reason we are purchasing the paper is to find out about what is going on in our own area, if I want to know about national items I would of course buy one of the national newspapers.
In my opinion if the local newspapers are going to survive they need to fight back. I would much prefer to read about the real local stories from my area; let’s face it that it what it says on the tin “local newspaper”. I can read about the national news in a variety of places, maybe there are many other people who think in a similar way as to what I do; hence the decline in overall newspaper sales. By all means include the main two or three national news stories but ninety percent of the items should be about the local area and its people.
