It is with mixed feelings that this blog has read about the KM Group bid for seven Kent newspaper titles.
The proposed purchase, which is subject to approval by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), involves the Medway News, Isle of Thanet Gazette, Thanet Times, Folkestone Herald, Dover Express, the Times series covering Canterbury, Faversham, Whitstable and Herne Bay, and the East Kent Gazette.
The titles are currently owned by Kent Regional News and Media (KRNM)
Given Medway, a conurbation of some 220,000 residents is currently only served by two major newspapers; News and Messenger, it is extremely concerning to note that the KM Group would have an effective monopoly over the area.
Whilst this blog has nothing against the KM Group it is simply not healthy in a democracy for one provider to have such dominance over local news, and indeed does raise questions about whether the KM Group will remain impartial and investigative of Conservative Council practices.
This issue comes on the back of the Medway Messenger having given Tracey Crouch MP a regular column in its regular Friday edition, so giving the Conservatives two out of the four political slots. Given the other slots were from leaders of respective Council Groups it looks very odd that the independent group, which only has one member less than the Liberal Democrats, was not as this blog understands, offered the slot.
The proposed acquisition is subject to a 40-working day investigation by the OFT who I believe should look at this purchase with caution.
A subsuming of the Medway News would be an utterly unwanted development locally and should be opposed by residents.
We need a healthy press and not a monopoly of opinion, news or comment.
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Thank you for this important and timely post. |I think that only if it can be effectively demonstrated that the only alternative in practice would be the closure and loss of the Medway news & other titles could the merger be justified.
ReplyDeleteIt has been obvious for some time that the Medway News (these days just the "News") hasn't been doing very well on the whole, but I didn't think it was in a dire situation and would be unable to survive, along with its sister/related titles.
Meanwhile, don't discount the third local newspaper, Your Medway, as any lesser a player than the two older hands. Although it too seems to be suffering at the moment (its content is largely non-Medway material taken from the campany's county-wide weekend papers) its recent move to on-line only will have saved it a lot of costs.
Perhaps that would be an alternative worth considering by the News, if that would perhaps make the difference; though they do manage at least some of those costs already, by having a cover price rather than being free.
I understand there is an option of keeping both publications under the same ownership but with different editorial content.
ReplyDeleteEither way the print media is dying a death as news means of social communication (blogs / twitter / websites etc) start to become more prominent.
None of the three websites are particularly user friendly at all and still too many focus on written content (based from print articles) as opposed to video technology.
YourMedway is effectively online only and they are seriously struggling financially.
Perhaps there is a not a solution but maybe co-ownership or indeed perhaps 50:50 stake with another large print organisation (e.g. Trinity Mirror) could surely be looked at.
Ignore me. Just noticed the paper has been moved to footer of the website...
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