Martin Fletcher has a grim perspective on the future of regional journalism in today’s Times.
His report focuses on the rapid decline of south-western publications, the Bristol Evening Post and the 150-year-old Western Daily Press.
Some 40 of the 154 editorial staff at the two newspapers have recently lost their jobs, while a further 36 were casualties from a similar redundancy cut back three years ago.
Fletcher says: “What is happening in Bristol is happening all over the country, of course. Scores of local papers have closed in the past year. More than 1,000 provincial journalists have been made redundant.
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“Across all Northcliffe’s regional papers, advertising dropped by about 37 per cent in the first quarter of this year. There is scarcely a title that is not struggling, and many more will fold.”
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