Lytollis reveals the pace of job cuts increased at the News & Star after they were bought by Newsquest. The number of journalists on local papers has halved to about 6,500 since 2005. Job losses have been the inevitable consequence of the local print media’s woes. Lytollis reports more than 300 local papers have closed in the last decade. This story is repeated all over the country. In his book, Lytollis describes how the News & Star’s circulation (ie number of people who buy and read the paper) fell from 26,000 a day in 2005, to 9,000 in 2016 – and to under 6,000 by the end of 2019. “The problem to date is that the shift online remains largely a case of giving up print pounds for digital pennies,” summarises the article. The online advertising spend on regional newspapers was worth only worth £229 million last year – nowhere near making up for such a slump in revenue. In March this year, The Guardian reported the newspaper advertising market was worth £2.5bn in the 2000s, but has now slumped to £241 million. Where in this modern digital world, the newspaper industry has suffered greatly from giving away its product for free, online, where advertising revenues don’t come anywhere near to compensating for the rapid decline in print sales. And that’s because Lytollis gives a first-hand account of the decline of local newspapers. Author Roger Lytollis tells the story of his time working as a feature writer for the Carlisle News & Star, and what life is really like at a local paper. If you’re looking for a book to read, I would recommend ‘Panic as man burns crumpet: the vanishing world of the local journalist’. Only these days, it’s rare to click on the ‘Bantams’ menu option at the top of the T&A homepage and be greeted by something truly unexpected. It’s during periods like this where an early morning visit to the Telegraph & Argus (T&A) website for Bradford City news is essential. Without competitive Bradford City matches to attend, the days and weeks stretch endlessly as we forlornly wait for news – any news – to scratch the itch. The close season is a bland, perpetual period of nothing.
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