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[Albion] What's going on at the Argus Sub Editors desk?



Hugo Rune

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 23, 2012
24,122
Brighton
I was in my local library the other day and picked up, for the first time in years, a copy of the Middy (The Mid Sussex Times). Other than the local football coverage which was very good I can't see why anyone would pay for it - a column by Mims Davies whining about the govt, some generic year in review content and crosswords and not much else. We've lost so much given what has happened with local journalism. The Middy used to be written and printed locally, each town and village had a correspondent, the letters page was always a great read....I know I sound like an old git but it's a huge loss to and for the local community, and repeated everywhere.
It seems that this sort of thing has been replaced by things such a regional Facebook pages and other social media platforms. It’s such a shame because the journalistic endeavour for truth has gone because social media is about opinions not facts. That is the great loss for me.
 




amexer

Well-known member
Aug 8, 2011
6,977
Local newspapers, in their heyday, were made viable by advertising – not the cover price, which was never a particularly important part of the revenue stream (but did put a few helpful quid into the coffers of newsagents).

The sort of ad spend a local paper can now count on is a fraction of what it was in the 80s and 90s. And as revenue has collapsed, due to online competitors, journalist numbers (and training) has been culled accordingly.

I suspect most people would like a properly-staffed local paper, with fearless, independent reporting and all the other things that once made them popular.

The problem is, even if everyone was prepared to pay for that, the advertising won't be coming back.

Public apathy hasn't killed local papers. The internet has.
Can remember when Argus had pages of jobs on Wednesday Cars on Thursday and Property Friday.
What is Brighton and Hove News like Is it better than Argus
 


Eeyore

Colonel Hee-Haw of Queen's Park
NSC Patron
Apr 5, 2014
26,676
Can remember when Argus had pages of jobs on Wednesday Cars on Thursday and Property Friday.
What is Brighton and Hove News like Is it better than Argus
Cars on Wednesday, jobs on Thursday. Not sure why I felt the need to correct. But anyway.
 


Lenny Rider

Well-known member
Sep 15, 2010
6,179
Obviously a number of us were in France or in the process of travelling there, so it went under the radar to a degree, but on the day of the Marseille game there was no sports pages whatsoever in the Argus due to an ’oversight’ at the printers in Weymouth!


So arguably one of the biggest days in the clubs history and nothing in the local paper 🤷‍♂️

Back in the good old days when the paper was printed on site, firstly in the middle of the City and than latterly at Hollingbury, the Editor without exception looked at the first copy to come off the presses.

Different times.
 






ClemFandango

Well-known member
Oct 2, 2023
181
Market forces.....I would like to be able to find an argument for state subsidy of local news media, but I can't :shrug:

If people stopped using the BBC I'd feel the same about that, but it is massively used still as far as I can see.
And it isn't a private company so it is a different entity altogether.

(Sorry, I can't tell if you regret the passing of Argus 'quality' or simply accept it as inevitable).
yes, massively regret it, worked at the Argus in the '90s when it used to sell 120,000 copies a day and had regional offices in every major Sussex town. Utterly decimated now by, as many have said, the loss of revenue to the internet behemoths. The loss of local papers is a disaster in terms of holding local authorities to account
 
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Greg Bobkin

Silver Seagull
May 22, 2012
16,545

No mention of Steve Ford who set the whole thing up and worked on the project for 23 years? 🤷‍♂️
I don't read that rag, but the problem you mention sounds like it is down to the author of the piece or the editor. It's not a sub's job (especially this day and age) to add in information such as that if it's not there.
 




About 25 years ago, I was an active NUJ member, had been chair of my branch. I had also been using the internet before the days of WWW and knew its potential. I wrote a regular column in the NUJ paper and also addressed a series of meetings in various locations warning of the effect that the web would have on the media and a) get better organised and b) learn new skills.

The overwhelming response from the journalists at those meetings is that I was talking a load of drivel and had no idea how rooted local newspapers were in the community. The internet was dismissed as a passing fad by just about everyone. It was a thoroughly depressing experience, got an inkling of what Cassandra must have felt like.

It's really sad what's happened to papers like the Argus but there was a real lack of foresight back in the day: the papers didn't know what hit them and how to react.
But what could ordinary members of the NUJ have done about it? Aren’t you confusing them with the owners and senior managers who were actually responsible for responding to tech disruption?
 


I don't read that rag, but the problem you mention sounds like it is down to the author of the piece or the editor. It's not a sub's job (especially this day and age) to add in information such as that if it's not there.
Given I think the subs are the other side of Southampton these days, doubly so
 


Greg Bobkin

Silver Seagull
May 22, 2012
16,545
Given I think the subs are the other side of Southampton these days, doubly so
I wouldn't even be so sure there are subs, plural, either! I know if many outlets where they just don't exist.
 






The Clown of Pevensey Bay

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
4,350
Suburbia
If it weren’t for Albion coverage there’d be even less reason to read the Argus. I firmly believe that Andy Naylor was the only thing stopping Newsquest from ending daily publication.
 


Braggfan

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded
May 12, 2014
2,021
Google and Facebook take 98% of the world’s advertising revenue. Legacy media are scrapping for the other 2%, meaning their businesses are increasingly unviable, hence the pitiful salaries. Soon there will be no local journalists, it will all be done by AI
Thank god
 




Lenny Rider

Well-known member
Sep 15, 2010
6,179
I don't read that rag, but the problem you mention sounds like it is down to the author of the piece or the editor. It's not a sub's job (especially this day and age) to add in information such as that if it's not there.
Sorry Greg I was being facetious.


My point being whoever wrote the original piece needs shooting, to not mention Steve Ford after his role in the 35 years and the fact he set the whole thing up, beggars belief.
 






ROSM

Well-known member
Dec 26, 2005
7,085
Just far enough away from LDC
I suspect this was written from a starting point of a press release or scheduled interview

The angle is driven by the foundation. If the journalist doesnt have the background they wont ask questions on it.

Many people wont know that BHAs 1st education through football session was run at falmer high school and was designed by andy schofield who went on to be head at varndean and was delivered by a team including club employees /directors and members of the falmer for all group.
I don't read that rag, but the problem you mention sounds like it is down to the author of the piece or the editor. It's not a sub's job (especially this day and age) to add in information such as that if it's not there.
 






ROSM

Well-known member
Dec 26, 2005
7,085
Just far enough away from LDC
Sad to see Adam Trimingham has died. A local reporter who knew Brighton well, in the days when Brighton had local reporters
He was a legend. His coverage of the 'off field' albion from the goldstone sale, battle for withdean, fight for falmer was superb. He picked up by the way comments in council meetings that would grow legs and run. Councillors believing they were clever would soon be caught out. He wrote editorials , front pages and his own column about that.

The morning of the falmer referendum the city was decorated in green 'Yes yes' balloons and banners. We focused on routes to work used by local journalists and Adam appeared on the radio Sussex breakfast show from Brighton. His comments about the campaign were wonderful for this bunch of political amateurs to hear.

He also didnt suffer fools gladly and saw through a number of local shysters who sadly still exist in our city today fighting spurious causes while on the take

My wife worked with him for a decade and stayed friends for many years since. He will be missed
 


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