No News Is Bad News

My local paper is the best in the country. The Hampshire Chronicle is over 200 years old but still offers news in depth, considered opinion on relevant issues as well as shining light into dark corners of local politics. TV and radio news is shallow and spineless by comparison.

Sadly the internet is threatening the survival of local newspapers in two ways: firstly by diverting advertising from them, secondly by taking news from them and providing it for free. I know it's not necessarily the end of the world if newspapers die out, you can't fight progress, etc etc... except there is no sign that advertising on the internet alone will ever be able to pay for the resources needed to produce local news of the same quality as The Chronicle and other newspapers which have paying readers. As things stand, if local newspapers disappear, so will the online news.

The internet has been around for a tenth of the time of the Hampshire Chronicle and there are still no clear business models for many of its activities. Yet it is wreaking havoc across a range of industries from the music business to retail shops to the newspaper industry .

The web is useful for updated information and for archives but, if we value our local community and democracy, we must keep buying our local paper until we're sure the internet can really sustain something as good.