http://blogs.spokenword.ac.uk/douglaschalmers Media Matters - Postgraduate Journalism ot Glasgow Caledonian Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:42:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://blogs.spokenword.ac.uk/douglaschalmers/2009/10/15/problems-in-the-newspaper-industry-whats-the-alternative/comment-page-1/#comment-15 julian.calvert Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:42:47 +0000 http://blogs.spokenword.ac.uk/douglaschalmers/?p=441#comment-15 The Scott Trust has certainly played a major role in backing the Guardian's ambitious online developments - and costly new presses - but this has been at a cost. GMG also owns many local newspapers in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire, which have been cut back savagely, despite in many cases being profitable, to offset losses at the larger titles. Offices have been closed on a wholesale basis, so that a town such as Macclesfield has seen its local paper effectively move to central Manchester; prestige developments at a national level have come at the cost of a democratic deficit in many towns in the north west. The Scott Trust has certainly played a major role in backing the Guardian’s ambitious online developments – and costly new presses – but this has been at a cost. GMG also owns many local newspapers in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire, which have been cut back savagely, despite in many cases being profitable, to offset losses at the larger titles. Offices have been closed on a wholesale basis, so that a town such as Macclesfield has seen its local paper effectively move to central Manchester; prestige developments at a national level have come at the cost of a democratic deficit in many towns in the north west.

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