Tag Archives: Andrew Gilligan

Council news round-up: ad revenue shortage for East End Life and plans for new council TV

There’s been much debate amongst regional and local newspaper representatives in the UK about the impact of local authority ‘newspapers’ or freesheets on their advertising revenue, role in the community and news coverage.

Yet much of this debate has been difficult to frame, with exact details of staffing numbers, cost and output of these publications varying between authority.

In London, Andrew Gilligan suggested that local authorities in the city employed more staff writers than the capital’s newspapers.

This week some more stats can be added to the picture:

Press Gazette reports that Tower Hamlets’ Borough Council paper, East End Life, will need an extra £400,000 of tax payers’ money to keep it going.

According to a mid-year budget report from the authority, the freesheet is suffering from a £396,000 shortfall in advertising for the current financial year.

Deputy leader of the council, Joshua Peck, reportedly told the East London Advertiser that this lack of ad revenue would be made up for with cuts to the authority’s communications budget.

Add to this HoldtheFrontPage’s report on the cost of East End Life, which states:

“A previous investigation by the Advertiser showed that public-sector organisations paid a total of £980,000 to advertise in East End Life, making the true cost to the public purse £1.1 million a year.

“An alternative budget put forward by Tory councillor Tim Archer earlier in the year suggested the council could save £670,000 or 1pc off the average council tax, by scrapping the paper and taking out advertising with the Advertiser instead.”

Elsewhere, plans for a new TV station launched by Carmarthenshire Council (link spotted via Jon Slattery’s blog) have come under criticism.

According to a report on thisissouthwales.co.uk, the station would cost £30,000 a year to run. In a move to fund the new station, the authority is planning to drop one of its bi-monthly news magazines, which currently costs more than £114,000 to produce and distribute.

Industry groups have called on the Audit Commission to investigate the impact of local council newspapers on the regional media industry, as part of the government’s recommendations to the commission in the Digital Britain report. But the commission said such an assessment should be made by the Office of Fair Trading.

The commission will however review all aspects of council communications including press offices, publications, websites and expenditure on advertising jobs.

Journalism Daily: BBC video plans, Trinity Midlands strike and perfecting the press release

Journalism.co.uk is going to trial a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

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On the Editors’ Blog

Evening Standard: Andrew Gilligan on council ‘propaganda’ newspapers

Some interesting figures to be pulled out of Andrew Gilligan’s tirade against council-run newspapers in the UK:

  • In London more writers are currently employed by local authority titles than by the local independent press (which has around 350 editorial staff).
  • According to Gilligan, weekly council paper, Greenwich Time, has a total annual gross cost of £708,000 – £532,000 of which is supported by public money.
  • East End Life – the council freesheet for Tower Hamlets – has almost 50 per cent more staff than its independent rival, the East London Advertiser, and almost double the pages.
  • Public sector organisations pay a total of £980,000 to advertise in East End Life a year, according to Standard research.

The comments from readers are also worth a read with both the impact of dwindling resources on independent newspapers’ ability to cover local news and the ‘brain drain’ of journalists to local authority titles touched upon.

Would be great if the Standard could release the figures from it’s research in full…

Full story at this link…

‘Governments at war are winning the battle of controlling the international media’ – motion debated at Frontline Club now

From the Frontline Club, live now:

“To mark World Press Freedom Day, we’ll be debating the state of press freedom at the Frontline Club this morning. We start at 10am GMT May 1. The debate will cumulate in an audience vote on the motion ‘Governments at war are winning the battle of controlling the international media.'”

Update – Final video below:

It’s for charidee: Carol concert (December 11) and Evening Standard’s eBay auction

It’s the season of good will, so here’s a plug for two worthy events:

In aid of Leonard Cheshire Disability, newsreaders Nicholas Owen, Emily Maitliss and Katie Derham will take part in a fundraising Christmas concert.

Music at the event, which will be held on Thursday December 11 at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank, will come from the London Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir and stars of stage and screen.

Tickets are priced from £10-£50 and are available from the Southbank Centre on 0871 663 2500 or can be booked online.

Can’t make that? You can take part in the Evening Standard’s ebay auction from the comfort of your own desk (or lap, depending on what you use…):

To raise money for charity Greenhouse, the ES is auctioning off a host of meeja-related prizes from dinner with editor Veronica Wadley, lunch with Robert Peston to accompanying Sir David Frost to a screening of Frost/Nixon.

The auction closes at 12pm (GMT) on Monday 15 December, so get bidding: lunch with Andrew Gilligan is already up to £259.00 or you can get an audience with Brian Sewell for £101.00.

Gilligan gets on board with Greenwich.co.uk

Recent Paul Foot Award nominee Andrew Gilligan has been signed up with local community news site Greenwich.co.uk to pen a weekly column for the site.

‘Gilligan’s Greenwich’, which is published every Tuesday, has already attacked Transport For London’s plans in the borough and the development, or lack of, of the old Greenwich hospital site.

The site is published by Uretopia, which also runs newmalden.co.uk and aboutmayfair.co.uk as part of its hyperlocal news network.

Plans for new site launches are schedule for 2009, a press release from Uretopia said.

We’re off to the investigative Oscars tonight: follow us live

Tonight is the pinnacle of the investigative and campaigning journalism year, when one (or three in last year’s case) journalists walk away with the prestigious Paul Foot Award, which rewards the best of campaigning journalism.

We’ll do our utmost (dongle/Wifi/mobile signal permitting) to Twitter the proceedings: follow us @journalism_live.

Nominations this year:

  • Richard Brooks of Private Eye – for his articles investigating the government’s involvement with fund management company Actis
  • Camilla Cavendish of The Times – for a series of pieces and a campaign against miscarriages of justice carried out under the Children’s Act 1989
  • Andrew Gilligan of the Evening Standard – for his investigation into financial irregularities at London’s City Hall and the London Development Agency
  • Warwick Mansell of The Times Educational Supplement – for his work on the SATS test marking scandal and educational opposition to the government’s league table system for schools
  • Dan McDougall of The Observer – for investigating child labour in South Asia, particularly that perpetrated by clothing retailers Esprit, Primark and Gap Inc
  • Jim Oldfield of Rossington Community Newsletter, South Yorkshire Newspapers – for coverage of opposition to the proposed construction of an ‘eco-town’ in Rossington

Paul Foot award shortlist announced

The shortlist for this year’s Paul Foot award, which aims to celebrate the very best in campaigning journalism, are as follows:

  • Richard Brooks of Private Eye – for his articles investigating the government’s involvement with fund management company Actis
  • Camilla Cavendish of The Times – for a series of pieces and a campaign against miscarriages of justice carried out under the Children’s Act 1989
  • Andrew Gilligan of the Evening Standard – for his investigation into financial irregularities at London’s City Hall and the London Development Agency
  • Warwick Mansell of The Times Educational Supplement – for his work on the SATS test marking scandal and educational opposition to the government’s league table system for schools
  • Dan McDougall of The Observer – for investigating child labour in South Asia, particularly that perpetrated by clothing retailers Esprit, Primark and Gap Inc
  • Jim Oldfield of Rossington Community Newsletter, South Yorkshire Newspapers – for coverage of opposition to the proposed construction of an ‘eco-town’ in Rossington