The Decline Of The Local Newspaper

I have recently been hearing about how our local newspapers (in the UK)
are falling into decline due to a raft of competition from various
alternative media sources such as the internet.

I have recently been hearing about how our local newspapers (in the UK)
are falling into decline due to a raft of competition from various
alternative media sources such as the internet.

I live in Birmingham and I am the type of person who loves to play and
watch sports. Where I live we have a famous Saturday nights sports paper
which arrives in the shops at around 6pm, it is called The Sports Argus
and is pink in colour. This paper has been a must buy for my family for
as long as I can remember and it includes all of the days football
results and the latest football tables. It also has match reports from
all of the local teams as well as a lot of information about other
sports including the horse racing and its results. This paper will no
longer be available as it appeared in the shops for the last time around
three weeks ago.

A few years ago the first place to read about these results and to see
the updated football divisions was via this newspaper. This is no longer
the case of course. We are now able to view this information almost
immediately after each football match has finished on either satellite
television, the internet or even on our mobile phones. Less and less
people are now purchasing this particular paper which is a shame as I
had continued to do so and will miss it!

Other potential reasons for a decline in our local newspapers could
include the fact that they are no longer that local, if you know what I
mean. As an example some of the papers include lots and lots of national
news items and only a few about local stories and events. The reason we
are purchasing the paper is to find out about what is going on in our
own area, if I want to know about national items I would of course buy
one of the national newspapers.

A number of our local newspapers have been taken over by some of the big
news corporations who have reduced the amount of pages in each edition
and who have also reduced the amount of copies which are printed. What
they did not reduce of course was the price, therefore they are
expecting us to pay the same price for less pages and less news.

We are now also able to watch the news twenty-four hours a day if we
want to and if we of course have access to satellite television. This
has had a huge negative impact on the local newspaper sales.

Advertising revenue has greatly reduced in recent years for these local
newspapers, this has also been a reason which has resulted in some of
them deciding to stop printing.

In my opinion if the local newspapers are going to survive they need to
fight back. They should become as is their name, more local. By all
means include the main two or three national news stories but ninety
percent of the items should be about the local area and its people.

Advertising rates should be made more affordable with perks to encourage
people to become long term business partners and advertisers, such as
free features of their business from time to time. I would also include
some interesting competitions and offers off different products.