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Journalism is being undermined by a slow process of attrition

Morning Star northern reporter PETER LAZENBY gives his take on the problems facing the Yorkshire Evening Post

IN 1972 I joined the staff of the Yorkshire Evening Post in Leeds. Its sister paper is the morning paper the Yorkshire Post.

The papers had a succession of owners and are now owned by Edinburgh-based Johnston Press.

Together the two Leeds-based papers had an editorial staff of 200. The daily circulation of the Yorkshire Evening Post was around 180,000.

Today the paper’s circulation is less than 12,000. Staffing levels have been slashed to around 50 for the two papers.

This did not happen as a single blow but was a slow process of attrition.

The owners, particularly the most recent, Johnston Press, were greedy for profits and fat bonuses.

Profit margins were regularly 30 per cent of turnover, but it was never enough. More was demanded and staff paid the price.

This was at a time when major supermarket chains would be delighted to make a profit of 10 per cent.

Editorial job cuts meant lower standards of coverage — courts were dropped, councils not covered, investigative reporting, in which I was involved for many years, became a thing of the past.

From the late 1980s proprietors attacked our colleagues in the print unions, destroying proud organisations — some readers may remember the NGA, Sogat, Natsopa and Slade.

Back on the editorial side, the Yorkshire Evening Post published eight editions a day, some targeting geographical areas — Bradford, Castleford, Wakefield, Harrogate, York, Dewsbury, where there were editorial district offices. Deadlines were tight. That last was around 4pm.

Within an hour the “late-night final” was on sale in Leeds city centre as office staff began to make their way home.

All that has been destroyed, partly by computerisation and the development of online news and social media but also by the greed of newspaper proprietors and their lack of concern for quality journalism.

Today one edition of the Yorkshire Evening Post appears, and it is printed the night before it appears. So much for up-to-date news.

This pattern has been replicated across Britain and still the sackings and demand for profits continue.

Journalists have fought back heroically with repeated strike action, but they face employers who care not a jot for journalistic professionalism and quality, for democratic accountability of corporations, councils and other bodies through local newspaper coverage.

Where journalists do fight back, through their union, the National Union of Journalists, they deserve the widest possible support.

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