Does The Lichfield Blog Herald The Future of Local Journalism?

A 12 -year-old girl was airlifted to hospital after being involved in a traffic accident in Lichfield on Sunday.

It's a story the people of Lichfield and the surrounding area might be interested in. And to its credit, local paper the Lichfield Mercury has the tale up on the front page of its website.

But search in Google News for "girl airlifted Lichfield" and the sites that come up are the BBC and the Lichfield Blog (at least for me, as I write this). The Mercury is nowhere to be seen.
The Lichfield Blog claims to be edited by "Sammy J" - better known as Lichfield's statue of Samuel Johnson.
Image by Tim Ellis, published under Creative Commons License.

That seems to me like a good example of the challenge facing existing newspaper websites.

The issue is not so much, despite the claims of some "social media" enthusiasts, that established newspapers don't "get it" when it comes to the Internet.

Both the Lichfield Blog and the Lichfield Mercury's site - clumsily named thisislichfield - have social media elements.

They both invite readers to comment on stories. The blog also invites ratings, while the Mercury doesn't. The Mercury has icons for sharing stories (on Facebook, Digg etc), while the Blog doesn't.

Bizarrely, the Mercury doesn't seem to offer an RSS feed, which is a big minus. But they are basically doing the same thing.

Despite using Wordpress, a platform usually associated with blogging, the Lichfield Blog even looks like a newspaper website rather than a traditional blog (not a criticism - it looks better than most websites for small newspapers, in fact).

If it was named The Lichfield News it could happily describe itself as a news website rather than a Blog.

What the Lichfield Blog does demonstrate, however, is how easy it is to set up a news website, and one that looks professional, if there are people who have the time to do so.

It's even fairly easy to get listed on Google News, although I do wonder how it meets Google's requirement that it be "written and maintained by a clear organization" when the editor claims to be Lichfield's statue of Samuel Johnson. But I'm glad it's listed - no reason why it shouldn't be.

The Blog is well written and seems to be updated more than the Mercury website.

It doesn't appear to be written by a professional journalist, (the intro to the story about the accident is "a crash involving a van and a lorry in Lichfield saw a 12-year-old girl ....") but I doubt many readers care. [Update - I was wrong about this, the main writer is a trained journalist]

Despite running Google ads, the Lichfield blog is a non-profit project. You need a hell of a lot of people clicking your Google links to pay one person's salary, so I'm not surprised.

Is this the future of local journalism - kind of like what we have already, except people don't get paid for it? Quite possibly.

One big challenge for commercial newspapers is that an obvious response to websites which use a free CMS and don't pay their staff is to cut their own expenses to the bone.

But anything which reduces the quality of the journalism they offer is, surely, only likely to make alternative offerings even more attractive to their audience.

                   

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Comments (5)

Sammy J, June 02, 2009

Thanks for the praise - even if some of it is backhanded

In terms of the Google registration, we provided them privately with a clear structure of the organisation so that's how I think we got round that one.

And as for why Sammy J is used is that as a former regional newspaper journalist (even if the standards made you think otherwise!) I didn't want the site to focus around a 'me vs them' attitude as if I was trying to prove a point. Obviously if one of the major media players decide to invest heavily in patch reporting in Lichfield then we'll undoubtedly be put in our place, but the site was never set up to rival anyone. It was designed to fill a hole. Lichfield has a massive online community but very little 'live' news output. And that's why our news output can range from exclusives regarding plans for mosques or local club reports - we don't make the news, our community does.

In terms of the future of local journalism, if that is the case it won't be because we've decided to do that, after all, as you point out, we're not a huge corporation with millions to spend on staffing. But what we are is committed and passionate about our area and by letting our community make the news and be heavily involved in the site (the design etc was chosen by people who read and contribute to the site) they feel a real ownership of it. The Lichfield Blog isn't my site - it's Lichfield's site (I think I've just re-written the site's strapline!)

http://thelichfieldblog.co.uk

Michael Fabricant, June 02, 2009

The Lichfield Blog is an incredibly useful resource. When I am abroad, I bring it up on my BlackBerry so I can keep in touch with what is going on in the constituency. The Mercury is a great newspaper, but for local news, 'as it happens', I depend on The Lichfield Blog though I think the name does this website a disservice.

http://www.michael.fabricant.mp.co.uk

Patrick Comerford, June 02, 2009

I love the Lichfield Blog ... it keeps me up to date witrh news from Lichfield that I wouldn't get every day in Dublin otherwsie. Having written for the Lichfield Mercury in the 1970s I still love the paper and buy it every time I'm back in Lichfield. Indeed, it's important for more things than news .... houses on the market, for example. I'd hate to see it go, but the blog is reaching this reader every day, and doing a fine job too.

http://revpatrickcomerford.blogspot.com

Jonathan Walker, June 02, 2009

Thanks for all the comments. Sammy, sorry if some of the compliments seem backhanded - I am a fan!

http://www.walkerjon.com

Sophie, July 08, 2009

The Lichfield Blog is an excellent idea and is better than the crappy Lichfield Mercury that I tend to let the dog rip to pieces(at least it comes into use for something!) Well done to the Lichfield Blog!

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