Southwark News - Dulwich Edition

[jumpinjourno]

The Southwark News - the independent voice of the borough - (www.southwarknews.co.uk) is launching a Dulwich and Herne Hill edition?

? STARTING TOMORROW!!!

It will be a weekly thing from now on.

It is in the same form as its parent edition that has been stocked across Southwark for 20 years now ? but has a focus on Dulwich issues.

The big Dulwich stories are moved to the front with the odd exclusive?

Pick one up in store tomorrow ? or catch one of the team handing them out in selected hotspots around the south of the borough.

Have a look, check it out and get back to us with any ideas, stories or comments on what we can do ahead of next week.

Best wishes

JJ

[penk]

I'm hoping to get the lowdown on this whole 'Clowngate' thing.

[James]

Oh my God I bet it will be so exciting! What will they be reporting on? WORLD EXCLUSIVE - FRIED CHICKEN OUTLET TO BECOME BABY CLOTHES SHOP. Perhaps the clown could have its own column? At least that would be interesting

[Mikecg]

Stop Press! LLL Unmasked!

[louisiana]

What about our esteemed local MP and her wayward 'estranged' hubby?

Ah, I was forgetting: she doesn't live here.

[Mikecg]

News Flash! Did he break wind or tread on a frog?

[nunheadbelle]

Aren't Dulwich and Herne Hill in Southwark then?

Can't be as good as our 'SE15' magazine which has been going for about 8 months now and which I look forward to every month. :))

[Michael Palaeologus]

"Big Dulwich stories"?

[Only me!]

I think the "big" refers to the font size.

Does help pack the pages during a slow news week apparently.

[nunheadbelle]

Like "Is Somerfield going to become a Co-Op" and "Crossing outside Somerfields" :))

Michael Palaeologus Wrote:

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> "Big Dulwich stories"?

[fractionater]

Is it free?

[paulino]

Surely it must be ... i can't imagine anybody would pay for it. ::o

[Jamma]

OK enough of the sarcasm and mockery. The fact remains that a decent local paper (and I'm not necessarily describing the Southwark News as a decent paper) fosters and strengthens a feeling of community. Of course there are a few magazines (of varying quality) around and this here forum but a newspaper is something slightly different (it should carry news as opposed to rumours and the occasional slander) and I think it's to be applauded.

[fractionater]

Will you be buying it then Jamma?

[SeanMacGabhann]

I'm with Jamma - gove someone a break. If it turns out to be rubbish then so be it but if someone tries to change things, far better surely to encourage with positive criticsm than openly mock

I don't think local papers will ever again be a force because too many factors are ranged against them, including:

consolidating owenership

budget cuts

safe editorial - scandal and soft stories over genuine interest

but if someone comes along and tries to make some kind of change, judge them on results rather than taking the easy scorn option

[jumpinjourno]

Anyone seen it?!

Lowered flight paths into Heathrow over Dulwich...

Blackwater Street binmen...

Suspect package exploded at ED Police station...

Palmerston Food Review...

Goodrich Teacher gets Science award...

Herne Hill Velodrome update...

Dulwich woman with dangerous dogs handed lifetime ASBO and banned from having animals...

History of Brockwell lido...

Dulwich Hamlet match report...

Thoughts or feedback...

Best wishes

[PeckhamRose]

But I read all about that on here! And the spelling's better too!

[penk]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> I'm with Jamma - gove someone a break. If it turns

> out to be rubbish then so be it but if someone

> tries to change things, far better surely to

> encourage with positive criticsm than openly mock

>

> I don't think local papers will ever again be a

> force because too many factors are ranged against

> them, including:

>

> consolidating owenership

> budget cuts

> safe editorial - scandal and soft stories over

> genuine interest

>

> but if someone comes along and tries to make some

> kind of change, judge them on results rather than

> taking the easy scorn option

You forgot something called 'the internet' which is the main reason they're closing in droves.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Good point, I did forget the internet. No point pretending that's not a major factor

I still think there is a place for printed paper - be it newspaper or whatever. But I'm not sure if enough people agree with me

[PeckhamRose]

I agree, really.

I subscribe to a professional magazine which has just decided to stop prodcing, and go online. I am really irritated by that because with a magazine full of articles, you can read one at your leisure, put down the mag, read it again the next day maybe in the loo or bath, go back to it again and read the same article again.

On line I just read what I need to, and don't want to go back to it because I am always looking on line at things (like being here!) and look for excuses to pull myself away.

A local newspaper would be of interest but I do not like Southwark News or South London press because about 75% of them is advertising and they are all a bit tabloidese and not exactly in depth reporting. What I want is an Independent or Guardian for Southwark. Is that too much to ask for? Yeah, course.

[penk]

What I want is an Independent or

> Guardian for Southwark. Is that too much to ask

> for? Yeah, course.

That will never happen. The Independent's days are numbered as it is, I wouldn't be surprised if they go under this year. The Guardian barely breaks even.

It's getting to be that investigative journalism's very existence is threatened, due to its higher relative cost c.f. 'churnalist' press release-driven stories that make up most of the papers.

Ad revenue is steadily plummeting, which the bigger papers are able to claw back some revenue from due to the high ad clickthrough potential of a national newspaper site, but look at a regional paper or even something so local-specific as the Southwark News and there's absolutely no chance, unless 75% of the paper is ads. And their ad lifeblood (recruitment, property, retail) is, to use a technical term, jiggered.

[SeanMacGabhann]

true and true

Although I don't think the Guardian has ever made money and with the trust in place I think it's fairly secure. The Indy has just been bled dry and is a shadow of itself - a shame IMO.

That said, I expect most of the "serious" papers to survive the recession - editorially there is nowehere else like a newspaper to tie various strands of an argument together and "serious" readers are as interested in that as they are anything else. It is something you just don't get from an online source

[Cassius]

I read both the Guardian and the Indy on-line during my lunchtimes, and I enjoy reading the comments - the immediate feedback is not something that can be replicated on the printed page. At weekends, however I like to take time over the 'real' paper.

[Shaggy]

Yep, give them a chance. We should support local newspapers like we like to support local shops.

Maybe by getting lots of youngish eastdulwichites to buy their paper they will be able to raise ad revenue. Its cold and grim out there in the media world, and it was never very easy to begin with. If we don't buy papers they will all and up turning into the Metro.

[penk]

Shaggy Wrote:

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> Yep, give them a chance. We should support local

> newspapers like we like to support local shops.

>

> Maybe by getting lots of youngish eastdulwichites

> to buy their paper they will be able to raise ad

> revenue. Its cold and grim out there in the media

> world, and it was never very easy to begin with.

> If we don't buy papers they will all and up

> turning into the Metro.

That's a rather rose-tinted viewpoint that doesn't take in massively fragmented audiences, or the unstoppable march of technology as a way of delivering content.

In 10 years there will be next to no local papers, the figures just don't add up and they never will again.

Take the fact that you are posting on here rather than writing in to your local paper with your local concerns. Why would you wait a week to read, for example, a review of the Palmerston when you can read hundreds in a matter of minutes on the web?