Why do we get such a bad press?

Anyone who has lived in Boston for more than a few years cannot have failed to have noticed the decline in our local newspapers.
From being big and bursting with local news they have become anaemic shadows of their former selves, with the apparent policy that so long as the “news” pages are filled as quickly as possible with whatever comes to hand, the content is by the by.
The problem is not peculiar to Boston. Local papers around the country are being marginalised by proprietors who see them as cash cows and don’t care what the content is, so long as the advertising revenues remain as high as possible.
Our oldest surviving local paper - the Boston Standard - was established in 1912 and was profitable enough to support three generations of the same family.
Now it is part of Johnston Press, which has pursued a relentless policy of cuts and centralisation.
The Target is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust, which keeps a similar cost conscious eye on its local and regional publications.
Whilst both groups celebrates their profits, the losers are the readers of the papers.
The Target, once delivered free to all , and good value at that price, has steadily cut back on its distribution with the result that if you want one you have to pay for it.
Large headlines and even larger pictures keep local content to a minimum, and the paper also dedicates around half a dozen pages a week to “county” stories - general reports usually with a police/health/county council theme - which last week filled six of the twenty “news” pages.
The Standard’s news coverage is equally thin - it works out at more than 1p per story in last week’s paper - but made more interesting by the regular addition of typographical or other mistakes such as one last week which warned us to beware of “flue like” symptoms. Two stories last week starred members of staff. One is trying to stop smoking, and believes that we’re interested in his progress, while the newly appointed editor takes the opportunity to blag the spot allocated to their “Brighter Boston” feature (“celebrating community and business success”) to plug a personal charity fund raising appeal.
Given the small number of stories in the paper these days, we would rather that they sought out some interesting news for us instead.
Nothing more difficult or dangerous than a weekly walk around Boston would provide a dozen stories. For instance, we’ve lost count of how many old businesses have closed, or new ones opened which have gone unreported in our local press.
This is the stuff that interests local people, but our modern breed of “journalists” apparently doesn’t realise it - even though readers are deserting them in droves as the ever-declining circulation figures prove.
Boston is a busy and thriving borough, but our papers fail to reflect the fact.
Someone once said that we get the press we deserve.
If so we must have done something very bad indeed.
Earlier this week. the Media Trust highlighted concerns that the decline of local newspapers has left many people feeling disempowered It called for "news hubs" where journalists can re-engage with the public face to face. These hubs would be sited in community centres, schools or the back room of pubs, and be financed by lottery money and local authorities.
It’s a good idea. But we’d be surprised if it ever happened.

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