I don't see how less journalists will do a better job

do you? How will that work?

When my dad was in journalism the local newspaper was not run so much as a pure business - it was seen as a service to the community. Yes, profit was involved, but not to the extent that it is now.

There were probably double the number of journalists
that there are now. That was reflected in both the size and the quality of the news coverage. The Evening News used to be literally double the size (at least). Because it had good resources, its reporters had time to actually go out and get stories. To spend time talking to people, uncovering things, bringing public bodies to account.

When I started 15 years ago, we used to have "patch days", where there was time to go out and make contacts, get tip offs, and be a real news reporter.

Now they are like battery hens, sitting in the office waiting for the next polished press release to copy and paste straight on to the web. An EN reporter will probably be writing three or four page leads a day - which just about gives them the time to make one or two phone calls before hastily banging it out as quickly as possible or they're bollocked by the news editor.

With less journalists, there will be less quality reporting.

I could rant for hours, but can't be arsed.

Finally, you are generalising about journalists - I never was, I was referring to Archant.

Posted By: duke of york on March 7th 2009 at 14:07:38

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