UpPress DownPress

It’s been a week of plenty bad / some good news for the press.

Ray Snoddy singled out the crisis in local UK journalism as the biggest current threat during a Coventry University forum. And he saw the collapse of much reporting at local level as having a knock-on effect up the media chain, with nationals and the BBC often relying on it as a source of stories and ideas.

Press Gazette reported Snoddy saying that the public should be concerned about the closure of local titles because "what really matters is the method to fund the newsgathering that leads on to other platforms".

"Most stories start from local reporters and move up the food chain," Snoddy added.

"The BBC, for instance, is deeply parasitic and gets most of its ideas and information from local journalists who have to do all the leg work."

BrandRepublic said 50 editorial jobs are to go at Guardian News and Media But “print will remain an important part of reaching the audience” according to Emily Bell of The Guardian, as reported here

Meanwhile, News Corp reported a 97 per cent drop in newspaper profits But Press Gazette reported Murdoch saying that his UK papers will recover in “a year or three”

And both groups look likely to charge for content. The Guardian considers it for some content

Murdoch says he’s going to do it

Elsewhere, Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider says there is going to be a bailout for "systemically important" papers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and the LA Times.

The 247WallSt blog says the sun is setting on financial titles Business Week, Forbes and Fortune, none of which will be able to afford the sort of in-depth analysis that is their stock in trade.

Here’s the nub of the analysis:

“The May 11 issue of Fortune Magazine is a perfect demonstration of what the three largest business magazines have done for decades. Its cover story, “How Bernie Did It’ is the culmination of a four-month investigation into the details of Bernie Madoff’s life and business operations written and reported by three of Fortune’s best editorial staff members, one of whom is a Pulitzer Prize winner. This issue of Fortune is also an example of why the magazine and its competitors Forbes and BusinessWeek, will soon no longer be able to publish these kinds of stories. The May 11 issue has 92 printed pages and covers. There are only 21 pages of paid advertising compared with more than a hundred pages in a spring issue 20 years ago.”