A JOURNALISM professor at the City University London has told editors and owners of Irish regional newspapers that their titles will fail unless they embrace the “online revolution” and even then, it may still not save them.
Addressing a conference yesterday organised by University of Limerick journalism students, Roy Greenslade, who is also a media commentator and blogger for the Guardiannewspaper, said there was a "a crisis" in the regional newspaper sector.
“I think there is a genuine crisis. I think it’s covered up to a larger extent by the obvious desire of owners not to be too gloomy, and I don’t blame them, otherwise no one is going to invest. But readers are deserting – they’re going online,” Prof Greenslade said.
“To be absolutely honest, I don’t think they can survive in the long term. In a way I think these companies know they are managing a decline and they know that what they need to do is reap short-term profits and sacrifice long-term existence. They won’t say that of course.”
Alan English, editor of the Limerick Leadernewspaper, which has been in print since 1889 and is now owned by Johnston Press Ltd, rejected this view.
“I would disagree that newspapers are in crisis. I think a lot of people who have been speaking here today aren’t working in the coalface of local newspapers. Those of us who are have a different perspective,” he said.
“We’re not blind to the realities that there are challenges and that circulations are in decline, but every single hour of the day we get evidence of what local newspapers mean to local communities.”
Mr English said the Leader has "a big online presence" adding: "We actually have more page impressions and more unique visitors than any local newspaper on the island of Ireland and we're very proud of that. We feel that the future of the Limerick Leaderis absolutely secure."
Will Ryan jnr, publisher of the Limerick Postnewspaper, also attended the conference. "There does seem to be a crisis in regional newspapers in this country at the moment but I do think it's over-exaggerated," he said.
“For us ‘being online’ is extremely important. You can read our entire edition online. Over 8,000 people have downloaded our iPhone app. I think it’s important to be ‘gamed up’ for that area, but I think revenue streams are still a good distance off.”
The chief executive of the Irish division of Independent News and Media, Joe Webb, also disagreed strongly with Prof Greenslade’s view.
“Very clearly there’s a positive future for publishing in Ireland, both at national and regional titles,” said Mr Webb.“The ‘online revolution’ is very important and the greatest challenge for us all is, how do we come up with a model that will be profitable and pay people’s wages?” he added.