Local Newspapers

Martin Vickers Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2015 Westminster Hall

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Rosindell. Like other hon. Members, I congratulate the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) on securing the debate. He began with a reference to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Austin Mitchell), who has been my Member of Parliament for 38 years, despite my efforts to dislodge him; so it would not be appropriate for me not to compliment him on those years of service. I am obviously the only one in the Chamber who was present on the night he won—against all the odds, so we were told, but clearly his natural charm and ability shone through.

I recall campaigns in which we have been involved—not only in the past five years, when we worked quite successfully together to achieve some much needed investment in north-east Lincolnshire, but also when I was a councillor. Together I think we contributed to saving Scartho infants school. I also recall a heated meeting at the Seven Seas pub with an understandably angry group of local residents, when it was proposed that the nurses’ home should become a hostel for asylum seekers. We have seen some ups and downs together, so I thank the hon. Gentleman for his service to the community. Despite our differences, there is no doubt that he has the interest of the people of Great Grimsby and the wider area at heart.

We have heard about the problems of the local newspaper industry, which are challenging. However, on the whole my constituents are extremely fortunate. We have a thriving array of local papers, of which the Grimsby Telegraph has already been mentioned. That is now Lincolnshire’s only daily paper, and has been delivering daily news since 1897—hence the fact that the “Bygones” edition has a lot of archive material to delve into. It is always worrying, of course, to see oneself in the bygones edition, but such is life. Sadly, its sister paper, the Scunthorpe Telegraph, has become a weekly edition, but the Grimsby edition circulates throughout my constituency, although in the Barton-upon-Humber ward it is the Scunthorpe edition that is a must-buy for most households every Thursday. We are also fortunate to have the Cleethorpes Chronicle, which is celebrating its seventh anniversary tomorrow. Certainly in Cleethorpes and the part of Grimsby where the Chronicle circulates the papers complement each other, and have some high-quality journalism.

The Telegraph is a greatly valued local institution. I recall a newly-arrived curate at the parish church telling me she had been confused when people kept referring to “the paper”, but had rapidly realised that in the Grimsby and Cleethorpes area, that means the Grimsby Telegraph. The Chronicle was launched six months before the economic crash, and it is a credit to Mark Webb and Nigel Lowther, the directors, that they have steered it through the choppy waters of the economic recession to the calmer seas that the coalition’s long-term economic plan has delivered. [Hon. Members: “Oh no!”] I get a bonus point for that.

Like me, Nigel Lowther, the editor of the Chronicle, is a Meggie, which means he was born in a certain part of Cleethorpes. He thinks he is probably the only newspaper editor in the country who can claim to be editing his home town newspaper. The Grimsby Telegraph is one of the best performing local papers in the country. Its print edition reaches 52,000 readers six days a week. The weekly readership is in excess of 82,800, which I am told means it outsells the Daily Mail in the constituency by two to one. Six out of 10 local people read either the online or hard-copy edition. I am sure that circulation must be higher on Mondays, as that is the day when the hon. Member for Great Grimsby and I share our weekly column. People queue up at the newsagents each Monday morning.

The online readership is between 30,000 and 40,000 unique readers a week. There is no doubt that one reason the Telegraph is held in high regard by the community is that it has championed many local causes, such as charities, and campaigns that I and other local politicians have been involved in—most recently to save the rail links between Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Manchester. It has been involved in fundraising for St Andrews hospice and for a Christmas outing to Lapland for desperately ill children. There are many other examples of its support for the community.

The Scunthorpe edition sells about 17,000 each week and 26,000 people visit its website each day. As with many local newspapers, there is a misconception that the readership of the online editions is made up of a distinct age group. In fact, 29% of the Scunthorpe edition readers are under 34, and 32% are in the 35 to 53 age group. The regional press, like many other industries in Britain, has had difficult times, but the birth and success of the Cleethorpes Chronicle and the continuing popularity of the Grimsby Telegraph and Scunthorpe Telegraph support what Michelle Lalor, the Grimsby Telegraph editor, said to me a day or two ago:

“I have been a local journalist for 26 years (all of it in the Humber region) and I see a local press in North East Lincolnshire today that is probably healthier and more exciting than it ever has been.”

There is no doubt about the challenges, and that fewer people are employed in the local press, but we are blessed in having had continuity. For the past 33 years there have been only two editors of the Grimsby Telegraph and many of the local reporters have moved on to higher things. There are quite a few around here, in Westminster, who started by being bored to death watching me in the Great Grimsby borough council public protection committee, or whatever, pontificating about some local issue or other. Although reports of local government meetings are fewer in number than they were in the 1980s when I was first elected, fortunately both the Grimsby Telegraph and the Cleethorpes Chronicle still report local politics. Local politicians can fear what the next edition may include.

The hon. Member for Great Grimsby referred to local papers publishing press releases sent out by political parties, MPs and whoever, who do their own selfies and so on. It occurs to me that if they write the articles and take the pictures, that is a good way to get much better press—surely some decent coverage is guaranteed.

The Grimsby Telegraph told me that it would welcome plans to look at further models for local journalism. If that is to be done by way of the inquiry that has been mentioned, I am sure that many local papers would welcome the opportunity to contribute. However, we must face the fact that, as with all products, ultimately the customer will determine whether local papers will succeed as electronic, digital editions or as hard copies. I much prefer the hard copy, but that is probably more a sign of my age than anything else. I cannot stand all the pop-up adverts—I would much rather subscribe to an online edition to avoid all those adverts, but each to their own.

In these days in which many of the institutions that hold together local communities, such as the church, the pub, the post office and so on, are in decline, local newspapers are a glue for local communities and a part of our identity. We must do all we can to ensure the vitality and success of that industry. Local papers are valuable to our local communities. Long may they continue.