Last week’s publication of regional circulations was a dreary mirror
to falling sales. Yes, there is something in the argument that
newspapers which used to cost a penny are now too big and costly.
Yes, newspapers have lost their monopoly of information to the electronic media.
Gone
are the days too, when Lord Beaverbrook said newspapers should make
mischief, not money, and his Daily Express under Arthur Christiansen
sold four million copies a day.
News sells newspapers, we used to say. Hard news about people, quickly telling the reader who, where and when. Not now.
Related
The
three Ws are too often consigned to the second half of over-headlined
stories of the excesses of public idols with feet of clay. Here is
clearly the malign influence of the success of such publications as
Hello! and OK!
Regional editors need pay little heed to it. They
have a golden opportunity to woo readers by spurning trivia and giving
what the national dailies cannot give: loads of local news on top of
full coverage of national news.
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