How Many Times Have You Been Asked: “How Come The Media Reports Only the Bad News”? There’s A Line of Thinking That Warns The More Local The Media The More Positive Its News Should Be

Philip M. Stone October 20, 2005

British Society of Editors at their annual conference this week heard a “futurologist” advise them that the more local a newspaper positions itself then the more that newspaper should report the community’s positive news, and it should steer away from sensational crime reporting.

Richard Scase, a well-respected British professor of organizational behavior at Kent University and a prolific author, told editors that people were becoming suspicious, cynical, and basically less-trustworthy of their national newspapers (could that be why circulation at British nationals has slipped so much this year?)  and they were looking for something very different from their local and regional press (and could that be why the regional/local press has been doing quite well this year?)

He said that when it comes down to reporting at the really local community level people are looking continually for reinforcement that they have made the right decision in where they have chosen to live, to raise a family, and try to enjoy the good life. So, to really attract the local readership, “play down the murders and the attacks,” and accentuate the positive, he advised.

That doesn’t mean that the crime, fire, and political beats are out of the window, but in our subjective editing world of deciding what stories get the most prominence it’s the “good news” headline of someone or some organization doing well that the community really wants to read about rather than some sordid crime.

As more and more newspapers emphasize local and regional reporting it’s a vital point well worth taking into account as resources are allocated. 

Another seminar on local/regional media reinforced a similar theme. One newspaper editor proudly proclaimed that his publication was the “local content king”. Robert Cockroft, editor of the Barnsley Chronicle said proudly his newspaper’s most successful edition of the year was when it ran a special supplement called “Dandy Dogs”, which featured 900 pictures of the local canine community, most pictures contributed by the newspaper’s readership.

“The readers know you are getting close to them when you don’t just visit their school and workplace, but their kennels, too.” He said.  He pointed out that the newspaper’s most successful supplements were often those in which the readership could directly contribute.

Since refocusing the newspaper 10 years ago on local news with more regionalized editions the newspaper has grown its circulation by 25% to 45,000.

The Birmingham Mail  relaunched two weeks ago and editor Steve Dyson said it was all a matter of going back to basics, “We have four ultra-local pages changing seven times a day (depending on the geographic target of each particular edition) five days a week,” he told the seminar. “We are now giving readers what they want with increasingly local content.”

As the Birmingham Evening Mail, the newspaper had suffered in each of its last two years from 10% circulation decline, becoming the UKs worst performing metropolitan-based newspaper. Circulation sank below six figures to 92,000, Reborn as The Birmingham Mail, its redesign focuses on local news that previously used to be consigned to inside pages but now makes it to page 1. It’s back to grassroots, concentrating on local areas. Local offices that had been shut for budget reasons are being reopened.

Dyson believes regional editors must re-think the needs of their readership.  Regional and local newspapers are not national newspapers. Regional/local readers have different interests, yet too often news judgment is decided by what gets printed in the national media. “Let’s start acting our size and return to our grassroots,” he told his audience. “Let’s get back to basics.”

And that means leading a local page with a lady’s 104th birthday, with archive shots of the street she has lived on all her life as it was 30, 60, and 90 years ago.

Yet another seminar brought home the point that if a newspaper really wants to get local then that means welcoming blog contributions from its readership, Nick Turner, deputy editor of the Carlisle News & Star, said that blogs were helping the regional press to connect with freelance contributors in a way not possible before. He said those virtual correspondents provide local editors with news angles on their own patch that they had never before thought about.

As the Barnsley newspaper discovered with its successful supplement on the community’s canine population, when it comes to the local/regional press there’s life in the old dog yet.

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