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Local and Regional News

Like my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey), I am concerned about the decision by the Guardian Media Group to close local news offices across Greater Manchester, coming as it does when the Manchester Evening News, the regional sister paper, has already faced substantial cutbacks. The decision means that scores of journalists will lose their jobs, which will have a huge impact on the quality and coverage of local news in my Denton and Reddish constituency. There will be a profound impact on great local titles such as the Stockport Express and Times and the Tameside Advertiser. We all know that local newspapers have an absolutely central role at the heart of local communities, so I was shocked by the announcement that Guardian Media Group is making 150 redundancies, including 78 journalists, and closing all its weekly newspaper offices in Greater Manchester. It means that 39 jobs will go at the Manchester Evening News and another 39 jobs will disappear in the weekly newspapers, including the titles covering my constituency—the Stockport Express and Times and the Tameside Advertiser. The plans also mean that all weekly papers in the MEN group, from as far north as Accrington to as far south as Wilmslow, will be based at its Deansgate office in central Manchester. That is devastating not only for the staff involved, but for Greater Manchester and the surrounding areas as a whole. As we have already said, local newspapers play an essential role at the heart of their communities and are written by a group of dedicated journalists. Local newspapers provide quality, independent journalism; they hold authorities to account and campaign on behalf of readers, to professional standards of fairness and accuracy and with no agenda other than the public interest. It is more important than ever to preserve those principles, but the closure of local newspaper offices will have a profound effect on them. The founding fathers of The Manchester Guardian, as it was originally called, and in particular its long-time editor, C.P. Scott, would be appalled and saddened by the developments. As he said in his centenary lecture, a newspaper is""much more than a business"." It""reflects and influences the life of a whole community"" and has a""moral as well as a material existence"." Let me give examples from my constituency. The Stockport Express and Times and the Tameside Advertiser are an integral part of their communities, and have been for many years. They play a major role in informing residents about events, crime, and local schools and their activities. They celebrate local success and highlight failures, and call the council and Members of Parliament to account through their investigative journalism. In Tameside, many people feel that moving the branch office from Ashton-under-Lyne will mean that local people will have reduced access to democracy. In my constituency, many people pop into the Ashton office to give journalists a juicy story, to find out more about something that appeared in the previous week's paper, or just to voice their concerns about certain issues. The same is true in Stockport, as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport. Similar issues arise from reduced distribution. A substantial number of people do not have internet access, so they cannot go online to find out what is happening. The beauty of purely local newspapers is that they avoid that problem. If we lose that presence in the two boroughs that I represent, people will feel that the title should no longer be the Tameside Advertiser or the Stockport Express; the newspapers will be more a Tameside or Stockport version of the Manchester Evening News, with a reduced number of pictures and stories, and more shared elements across the whole of Greater Manchester. For journalists, unemployment is a big issue. Most have trained to postgraduate level, and then spend at least 18 months training to take the national certificate examination in journalism. At present there are virtually no jobs to be had in journalism, certainly not in Greater Manchester, where the Manchester Evening News media have a virtual monopoly. That means that standards in journalism will be lowered, and we should all be concerned about that. Localism is the important factor for people in my constituency. The Stockport Express and the Tameside Advertiser are wonderful local campaigning newspapers with dedicated journalists. The Stockport Express has been an institution in Stockport since 1889. The Tameside Advertiser is a newer title than its Stockport sister paper, but it is just as highly regarded in the borough. This disgraceful decision urgently needs to be reversed. The newspapers are the key to campaigning in our areas, and we need to make sure that they are preserved for the future.