A leading media expert has highlighted the success of a Cleethorpes start-up in his regular blog on The Guardian website.
11 February 2010
Roy Greenslade is professor of journalism at City University and has been editor of the Daily Mirror. He writes for The Guardian on media matters and has singled out the Cleethorpes Chronicle as a venture that is “definitely worth celebrating”.
An independent weekly newspaper set up in 2008, the Cleethorpes Chronicle is celebrating having reached its 100th issue.
Despite the recession, the part paid-for, part-free title has gone from strength to strength and circulation has now grown to 11,000 copies a week.
Mark Webb, director, said:
“What we did not know was that, only months after we launched, the country would find itself in the midst of a deep recession which clearly impacted on our plans. It's been quite a journey over the last two years but we have more than survived, and are trading strongly. It really makes a difference when the owners of a newspaper actually live in the town it serves.”
Nigel Lowther, editor, added:
“People doubted whether Cleethorpes could sustain a weekly paper editorially and we felt that, if nearby towns with smaller populations could justify a weekly, then Cleethorpes and its surrounding villages could. We fill it with names and faces every week and we pride ourselves on going back to good, old-fashioned community journalism. It also helps our experienced team live in the area and the paper is written and edited in the heart of the community it serves.”
Future plans include a new approach to online publishing and expanding reach to even more areas in North East Lincolnshire.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/feb/11/local-newspapers-newspapers
Link: http://www.cleethorpeschronicle.co.uk