Wars in Local News and London Freesheets
Peter Preston: Why not let newspapers concentrate on their own market misfortunes for a while, without setting the BBC loose again?
Auntie's Aunt Sally is in the firing line again
Property ads slide abruptly by nearly 50 per cent, overall advertising plummets 15 per cent-plus. The cries of woe in the regional press - at Trinity, Johnston and the rest - grow ever more plaintive as Gannett, mighty owner of Newsquest, finds its credit rating downgraded to BBB-minus. No wonder the BBC's plans to spend £65m or so on developing very local news websites draw a torrent of preposterouses and disastrouses from newspaper leaders (including Carolyn McCall at the Guardian group).
The trouble for the corporation is that it is rapidly running out of friends (except dear, ubiquitous Aunt Sally, that traditional fairground target, preparing for more headlines as the BBC Trust publishes its Ross-Brand report in a few days' time). Who wants the entire press and legions of local MPs on your back at license fee time?
Maybe Ofcom and the Trust, putting business impact and public benefit assessments together, will give the local video boosts the go-ahead this week - or maybe they'll call a halt-cum-pause.
Which would actually be very beneficial all round. Who needs an imperfect idea in a perfect economic storm? Why not let newspapers concentrate on their own market misfortunes for a while, without setting the BBC loose again?
Fight on, never count the cost
Suppose you were a News Corp shareholder (ie, a person of little account). Would you tell your mighty, Murdochian masters that thelondonpaper, losing out badly again to Associated's London Lite in the latest National Readership Survey, is an expensive idea going nowhere slowly? That peace talks with Associated was common sense?
But when Associated, weighed down by the thought of 300 London redundancies, came quietly calling, Wapping seems to have slammed the gates in its face: no surrender. Trench warfare grinds on till one side cracks. Yet nobody, to this day, has unveiled a scenario that makes London evenings - even if Murdoch were the last man standing - a good business proposition. Nobody knows what on earth the game is; apart from losing millions more and telling inquisitive shareholders to shut up.
Property ads slide abruptly by nearly 50 per cent, overall advertising plummets 15 per cent-plus. The cries of woe in the regional press - at Trinity, Johnston and the rest - grow ever more plaintive as Gannett, mighty owner of Newsquest, finds its credit rating downgraded to BBB-minus. No wonder the BBC's plans to spend £65m or so on developing very local news websites draw a torrent of preposterouses and disastrouses from newspaper leaders (including Carolyn McCall at the Guardian group).
The trouble for the corporation is that it is rapidly running out of friends (except dear, ubiquitous Aunt Sally, that traditional fairground target, preparing for more headlines as the BBC Trust publishes its Ross-Brand report in a few days' time). Who wants the entire press and legions of local MPs on your back at license fee time?
Maybe Ofcom and the Trust, putting business impact and public benefit assessments together, will give the local video boosts the go-ahead this week - or maybe they'll call a halt-cum-pause.
Which would actually be very beneficial all round. Who needs an imperfect idea in a perfect economic storm? Why not let newspapers concentrate on their own market misfortunes for a while, without setting the BBC loose again?
Fight on, never count the cost
Suppose you were a News Corp shareholder (ie, a person of little account). Would you tell your mighty, Murdochian masters that thelondonpaper, losing out badly again to Associated's London Lite in the latest National Readership Survey, is an expensive idea going nowhere slowly? That peace talks with Associated was common sense?
But when Associated, weighed down by the thought of 300 London redundancies, came quietly calling, Wapping seems to have slammed the gates in its face: no surrender. Trench warfare grinds on till one side cracks. Yet nobody, to this day, has unveiled a scenario that makes London evenings - even if Murdoch were the last man standing - a good business proposition. Nobody knows what on earth the game is; apart from losing millions more and telling inquisitive shareholders to shut up.
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