We all are aware of the advertising and digital challenges facing the newspaper industry worldwide. The locals are being hit hard by free models and a downturn in advertising and the nationals are losing the meatier advertising and are competing with there own free and online challenge.
Today Trinity Mirror announced the closure of 9 UK local newspapers in the Midlands and the lay off of some 120 staff. They are proposing to close the Loughborough Trader Xtra, Lichfield Post, Tamworth Times, Burton Trader, Ashby Trader & Echo, Coalville Echo, Walsall Observer,the Bedworth Echo, Rugby Times and two niche publications, the Earlsdon Blog and Farm Ad and merge the Solihull News and the Solihull Times in Birmingham. In addition Trinity's Midlands printing business is also being impacted by the layoffs.
The problem with the changes that are happening is that they are breaking up the newspaper infrastructure which develops journalists, feeds larger newspapers and news industry with validated stories and sustains many business print demands via their presses. The change could have long term effects on the quality and authority of what we read and the development of people writing it.
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