Sly Bailey chairwoman of the Trinty Mirror Group, which I understand to be a little bit like the armies of the Dark Lord Sauron has announced plans to completely shaft local journalism in the Midlands region by effectively merging the three titles currently published into one newsroom.
The cuts have been condemned by the National Union of Jounalists, general secretary Jeremy Dear saying “The NUJ condemns these cuts, which will inevitably hit these papers – and the communities they serve – hard”. They also have an ongoing campaign again the sweeping cuts in local newspapers and associated drops in quality.
In a letter to the Trinty Mirror Group they stated; “The NUJ welcomes new technology but deplores the sledgehammer way it is being introduced as a knee-jerk reaction to the economic down turn, without indicating how this will enhance revenue raising opportunities.
“We do not believe our readers will be best served by reduced numbers of journalists expected to take on extra work which will inevitably leave them less time for news gathering and investigation.”
They are currently balloting their members on industrial action.
The main effect of this on us cricket fans is that cricket correspondents, George Dobell of the Post, and Brian Halford of the Mail are not certain to keep their jobs. Indeed it is believed that the new central newsroom will not have a specialist chief cricket writer at all. Now you may well be thinking, like me, that Sly Bailey appears to have a vendetta against readers of her publications of the magnitude once reserved for Colonel Decker in his single minded pursuit of the A-Team.
Birmingham is lucky at the moment by having two great cricket writers on its daily newspapers. It is no secret that they and I have not always agreed on every issue. Particularly around their freedom of reporting, a general point in sports writing that was the subject of a debate by the Journalism Leaders Forum earlier in the year. However the quality of their writing has never been in doubt. With the increasing dominance of 24 news channels and sports websites in breaking sports news and results it is becoming more important for news providers and journalists to differentiate themselves and to provide something unique. I feel that in the sphere of cricket writing for newspapers it is to give opinion and to help spark debate (even if it is only internal!) and to provide thought provoking pieces.
Cricket writing and journalism differs from that of other sports in that the game of cricket is about so much more than the result and how it was achieved. It is a psychological game, almost as much as a physical one. It is not enough to report a cricket game in a football reporting style, which is far too often limited to who kicked the ball to who, in what minute. We, the cricket watching and cricket loving public are interested in why the batsman failed or succeeded, why one bowler was able to exploit the pitch and another not. We are almost as fascinated by why Tony Lock only took one wicket as we are by Jim Laker taking 19 at the other end.
One of the reasons this blog was set up was due to the combination of the lack of a fan site, but also the lack of coherent news on WCCC outside of the individual TMG websites. If the quality of cricket coverage on the Post and Mail declines I am not sure how anyone will find out anything about the club at all. (I certain won’t be able to crib as many stories!)
Both of our regional cricket correspondents are different and equally important. Brian Halford’s blog really is a treasure. Much like Blowers on TMS his offbeat style is not for everyone (but I personally am I fan of both), but he is providing a fantastic service, my friend Tim on hearing of the potential job cuts said ‘I wouldn't get much idea about what is going on in the average Warwickshire game without Brian Halford's blog.’ And I think there would be many, many people, myself included, in the same boat. George Dobell meanwhile is proving that investigative journalism is alive and well in sports reporting and he routinely brings issues to light and pulls disparate facts and stories together to paint a larger picture of issues at the club. He is almost single-handedly keeping the public informed on the ground developments.
Both journalist have recently, and consistently produced thought and debate provoking editorials of the highest standard and I have no doubt whatsoever that should the Trinty Mirror Group dispense with the services of one or both, their, and our loss, will be a national newspaper or website’s gain.
For another, (similar!) take on this issue you can head over to Chris' WCCC Blog and read his thoughts. Not surprisingly he is as aghast at these potential cuts as I am.
There is some organised resistance to this move on the various forums; the current recommended course of action is to email the respective editors at:
steve.dyson@birminghammail.net
Marc.Reeves@birminghampost.net
Giving them your thoughts on the impending job cuts and the effect on cricket coverage.
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