PRESS & JOURNAL’S LAST EVER BROADSHEET PRINT EDITION

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Aberdeen Journal’s broadsheet title the Press & Journal has unveiled its last ever full-size paper in a bid to modernise.

The newspaper was founded 265 years ago in 1747, and has seen declining sales (in-line with the industry, nationally) continue despite this change.

Its head office in Mastrick, west of Aberdeen city, employs over 2,000 people.  It was at the forefront of the downfall of unionised workforces in the Scottish newspaper industry.

Their average daily readers remain, however, at an average of 71,004.  Their ‘Energy’ supplement, published the first Monday of every month, in particular, services the massive oil industry in the city, with an average monthly readership of 238,000.

It (287,000) dwarfs readership figures for the Scottish Daily Record (58,000), the Scottish Daily Mail (92,000) and even the Scottish Sun (169,000).

Given the affluence of the north-east, being the second most desirable location for the super-rich in Scotland, its readership is amongst the oldest, with 44% of its readers being over the age of 55.

Furthermore, the demographic make-up of its readers’ figures is 60% of ABC1s.

The change was phased-in eight years ago, appearing only in its compact format every Monday.

At the time Press & Journal editor Damian Bates, said:  “Today sees the Press & Journal go compact on a Monday with a new lifestyle section and significantly more sports coverage.

“But you will also find it maintains its gravitas and analysis of the news so that you can keep up to date with all the happenings in your area and further afield.”

Aberdeen Journals was sold by Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) in 2006 and the paper, now part of the DC Thomson newsgroup, is ready to make the change permanent.

Damian Bates, who replaced the longest-serving editor of a daily Scottish newspaper, Derek Tucker, two years ago, said:  “This move towards a compact newspaper has been driven very much by our readers.

“Any market research we‘ve undertaken, and we do undertake a vast amount of market research, has suggested that the vast majority want to see a compact newspaper.

“It’s easier to handle, and it’s what the readers want.  We are very confident, the reaction we have received so far has been positive.

“I don’t think it’s a gamble, I think we’re taking a bold step – we’re taking an innovative step – but this is an investment for our future.

“It’s part of an evolutionary step, we’re continuing to progress the newspaper all the time.”

Andrew Jones, journalism lecturer at The Robert Gordon University, said:  “This is where Aberdeen Journals have been very smart.  They’ve been fortunate to be in an area with a strong economy, but they’ve also been very careful not to give their content away.

“What they are now trying to do is create something that is a bit more dynamic, which will keep them going certainly into the medium-term.

“So they have been able to secure a much bigger share of the market than many their competitors, but – in common with all newspapers – they’re having to manage long-term decline.”

Media commentators have dubbed it the past as Parochial & Journal for its local news focus, because just one week after 9/11 the paper’s ‘World News’ section was barely half a page.

Some things they are willing to discount, however is the following:  that the paper, covering the Titanic story, carried the headline ‘North-east man lost at sea’.

The actual headline, in fact, was ‘Mid-Atlantic Disaster’.

Still, despite falling circulation, the oldest, most-read and best-selling broadsheet newspaper in Scotland has to have some, relative key to success.

Andrew Jones added:  “They’re operating in an environment which is economically very strong, and they have a very strong brand of concentrated and local journalism.”

Last year, sales of the Press & Journal dropped nowhere near as sharply as other national titles, only slipping from 88,000 to 73,000.

Figures from 2011 also showed Scotland’s bigger city evening papers faced some of the bigger falls over that time, including the Evening Times in Glasgow which fell 7.8% to average sales of 50,900.

In Edinburgh, the Evening News fell 7.2% to 38,700, with the decline in sales accelerating over the last six months.

The Herald, Scotland on Sunday, and Dundee Courier in Scotland have, so far, resisted similar changes, though.

However, The Scotsman, The Times and The Independent have become ‘compact’; with The Guardian and The Observer following similar suit.

Broadsheets were not always the preserve of the intelligentsia.  The Daily Express and even the now defunct News of the World were originally printed in broadsheet format.

Ironically enough, the News of the World was also printed on the Aberdeen Journal’s presses until March 2006.

AS WOULD BE WRITTEN FOR ‘Press Gazette’ (B2B)

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Teenage football coach to carry Olympic Flame

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The countdown to London 2012 is well and truly under way with only 158 days to go until the opening ceremony on July 27th and teenage football coach Andy Howe from Broadstone will be counting down the days more than most.

Photo courtesy of Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/waldopepper/5980780499/

Subject to the formality of security checks, Andy, 17, will take his place in the Olympic Torch Relay, after being publicly nominated in the ‘Moment to Shine’ campaign to carry the Olympic Flame on part of its trip around the UK.

Speaking about finding out the news he said: “I got an invitation and then an email confirmation. I didn’t really believe it and it didn’t really sink in.”

 

 

 

 

 

Nephew of former AFC Bournemouth player and manager Eddie Howe, Andy is already showing signs of following in his uncle’s footsteps. His nomination was for his dedication to sport including taking part in a coaching academy, teaching children who haven’t got good coaches better footballing techniques, and coaching for AFC Bournemouth’s youth teams.

He added: “I have to carry the flame for 200-300 yards which is not far but I still get to do it.”

The 70 day journey starts on May 19th when the Flame begins in Land’s End, Cornwall, after arriving from its home in Greece, culminating at the Olympic Stadium in London on opening night.

After travelling through cities such as Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and Liverpool, Bournemouth hosts the honour on July 14th, by which time Olympic fever will have swept the nation.

The 8,000 circles on the Olympic torch will be represented by 8,000 Torchbearers and Andy is one of the representatives for the Bournemouth leg of the route.

The course was carefully planned out to allow as many people as possible to witness the event, with 95% of the UK population within an hour of at least one of the venues.

After passing through Bournemouth, Boscombe and Christchurch, the Olympic Flame travels through Hampshire in preparation for the beginning of day 58 of the journey in Southampton.

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Bournemouth school students form own company

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Team Ignite

A group of entrepreneurial Bournemouth school students are breaking into the world of business with a brand new product.

The 18 young adults from Talbot Heath, Portchester, Bishop of Winchester and Parkstone Grammar schools have formed their own company called Team Ignite with the help of UK charity Young Enterprise.  They have developed a product called ‘Mymat’.

Young Enterprise sponsor several similar companies across the UK. They provide each fledgling company with an advisor from the local business community. In the case of Team Ignite this is 36-year-old Clare Belmont from Boscombe who is a client service manager with J P Morgan.

Clare said: “There are 18 young people in the company all of whom have an active role in running it. It’s a proper company in all senses and is registered with Companies House.”

The ‘Mymat’ product is a clear plastic place mat which can hold and display pictures. It will be made from wipe-clean perspex and will also come with water-soluble pens and simple learning activities like dot-to-dot and letter tracing.

“It’s a very versatile product,” said Clare. “It can be pitched to restaurants for use as a place mat with slide-in menus. A local special-needs school has also expressed an interest in it as a learning tool.”

Team Ignite raise their own funds and recently participated in a Dragon’s Den style event at Barclay’s House in Poole.

At the event similar groups from all over Dorset pitched their products to a panel of local entrepreneurs and business people. Team Ignite were one of the companies who won investment from the ‘Dragons’.

The team are taking part in a competition with other Young Enterprise sponsored companies throughout the UK. The Dorset heats of the competition will take place in March and from there they will go to regional and national heats.

In the meantime Team Ignite are looking for a local company to produce a prototype ‘Mymat’ which they can then begin to market.

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Navitus Bay Wind Farm fuels doubts and concerns

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A planned Wind Farm to be built off the coast of Bournemouth and Poole is receiving criticism from people in affected areas.

Dorset Against Rural Turbines has argued that the economic impact would be more damaging than the environmental one, saying ‘Rather than pouring millions of your money into wind energy for no effect we could pay for or subsidise lagging, greater roof and wall insulation, low energy bulbs and solar water heating.’

‘These simple measures would add less than 10% of the cost of building an average new house.’

The Navitus Bay Wind Farm is expected to include up to 300 turbines covering a 200km wide area about 10 miles away from the Boroughs of Bournemouth and Poole, the Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee was told in Bournemouth last Monday.

One of the growing local concerns is the damage the Farm will cause to the famous views of the popular coastal location.

Campaigners against the project claim that it would be a ‘blot on the horizon’ and badly impact upon the tourism industry in the area.

Stephen Thorne, head of Planning and Regeneration, Borough of Poole has said, ‘the physical impact of the Wind Park on the tourist industry is a key issue which will need to be more fully assessed.’

The height of the turbines and the effect they will have on the coastal scenery is also being scrutinised.

Eneco, the Dutch energy company behind the project, claims in its scoping report that the height of the turbines will not exceed 205 meters, and that the maximum rotor diameter will be around 176 meters.

There will be public exhibitions held across Dorset which will aim to provide more information about the project and its proposals before the consultation period in May.

Now in the pre-application process, the Wind Farm is scheduled for completion in 2019.

 

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Blanket 20 mph speed limits can’t work says Councillor

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Winton’s blanket 20 miles-per-hour speed limit is unworkable, a Bournemouth Councillor has said.

Ward Councillor Theo Stratton opposed the introduction of the limit in December last year, calling the measure “something that isn’t wanted or needed.”

Speaking out today, Councillor Stratton said that people in his ward had come to him asking why the council was imposing a limit which was not needed, would be costly in terms of new signs and traffic calming measures and which, in any event, they could not enforce.

Councillor Stratton said: “The streets in the area are too narrow for speed cameras, and the police don’t have time to enforce the limit across the whole area.”

Speaking about the findings of a Sustrans survey, in which 70% of the British public said they would cycle in urban areas if blanket 20 mph limits were introduced, Councillor Stratton said: “I support 20 mph limits around schools and hospitals, but I’m afraid these blanket bans are an absolutely unrealistic proposal.”

Jason Falconer, who works as a ‘Bike It’ officer for Sustrans, encouraging children to cycle to and from school safely, disagreed with Councillor Stratton. He said that the narrowness of the streets in the Councillor’s ward meant that they needed a lower speed limit for the safety of cyclists and pedestrians.

Mr Falconer said evidence showed that the number of children killed or injured in 20 mph zones was substantially lower than in 30 mph zones and that enforcement was not the only factor.

He said: “The psychological effect alone would be very important. People in 30 mph zones tend to exceed the limit by around 5 mph, even if they were to do the same in a 20 mph zone, the average speed would still be substantially lowered.”

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Plans to ban parents from taking their children out of school will be ‘fraught with difficulty’

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A measure to ban parents from taking their children out of school during term time will be ‘fraught with difficulty,’ says one Bournemouth Councillor.

Councillor Barry Goldbart, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services at Bournemouth Borough Council said that flexibility would be needed if such plans were to be introduced.

‘In principle I would rather that parents didn’t take their children out of school in odd times, but it does rather depend on how long they take them out for.

‘I think you would need a bit of flexibility.

‘It [a ban] is going to be very hard to control. Nationally there must be a big problem, but I am not aware it is down here in Bournemouth.’

One of the reasons why families go away in term time is because holidays are much cheaper.

And according to Cllr Goldbart, it is the travel companies who lie at the heart of the issue.

‘The real problem comes down to the holiday firms who take advantage of the parents – that’s what the government should be looking more closely at.

‘They [holiday firms] effectively cause the problem.’

Cllr Goldbart also said that a possible solution would be for the government to ‘name and shame travel companies and airlines.’

This is a view enforced by Louise Isaacs, a local education specialist.

‘It’s a difficult balancing act for schools,’ says Ms Isaacs, who works with schools in the Bournemouth area.

‘Some parents can’t afford to take their children away during the school holidays.

‘Holiday firms can increase their prices by 50% – the problem lies at their feet.

‘If there were fairer holiday prices, this wouldn’t be an issue – the prices are just astronomical.

‘Most secondary heads don’t support Michael Gove as they fear the country is becoming too much of a “nanny state”’.

A headmaster of a local independent school says parents at his school are urged not to remove their children during the term.

Alastair Reid, headmaster of Ballard School in New Milton, said: ‘We actively discourage holidays in term time and parents who wish to take their children out of school are required to complete a form to formalise their request and explain their decision.

‘We work in partnership with parents to ensure that any work missed is then caught up and this might mean staying on late at school or coming in over a weekend.

There are, thus, consequences for any such absence.’

A local teacher though, who asked not to be named, said the parents were to blame for the problem.

‘Ultimately it’s the parents’ responsibility.

‘Education should come first and not be interrupted, unless it’s for a very good reason.

‘I would support a ban, but I think it would be difficult to enforce.

‘It’s always going to be more expensive [to go on holiday] at peak times, that’s the same for everyone, so it’s not the fault of holiday companies.’

Nearly double the price

A Thomson holiday to Spain is nearly double the price during the Easter holiday, as opposed to just two weeks before.

It costs £1360 for a family of four to go to the Costa Blanca between the 19th and 26th April.

But just two weeks later, in the first week of the Easter holidays, the exact same holiday costs £2556 – an increase of £1196.

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Boscombe arts centre occupied after demolition plans let slip

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Occupy protestor inside the listed part of the building

A protest group has moved into a Boscombe arts centre after a Bournemouth councillor said the building would be ‘rubble’ in a few weeks.

The Occupy Boscombe protestors moved in to the Boscombe Centre for Community Arts (BCCA) late last night after Councillor Chris Wakefield let slip that it would soon be demolished.

Cllr Wakefield’s statement came at the meeting for the future development of Boscombe held at King’s Park School in Boscombe on Saturday.

One of those who heard Cllr Wakefield’s statement was an interior decorator from Boscombe, 39-year-old Vivien Hoffman.

She said: “I said to him that we’d love to see the BCCA reinstated and he said, ‘In a few weeks that will be rubble.’ He was really triumphant about it.”

The news soon appeared on the Facebook page of  BCCA Friends, a local charity which is campaigning to have the centre reinstated. From there an Occupy Boscombe member spotted it and by Sunday night several members were secretly moving in.

Occupy Boscombe member Bob Earthwise said: “We’re happy to save the building for the community. It’s our arts centre. For the council to go into property speculation is outrageous with what belongs to all of us.”

Governors of the BCCA Friends charity, Katherine Edgar and Lind Ni’man were also at the site this morning. Linda Ni’man said: “This is the most deprived community in the whole South West of England. The council is supposed to be regenerating this area. How does pulling down a community arts centre to build flats help with that?”

In response to the claims Cllr Wakefield said: “What I said was taken out of context. I said an application will be submitted in the not too distant future. If that application goes through the site will be demolished as a consequence.”

The centre was built in 1878 as the ‘Boscombe British School’. In 1963 the school became the Bournemouth Children’s Theatre.

The building was closed in September 2007 and Bournemouth Borough Council began plans to demolish it. Since then the plans have faced constant protest from residents of Boscombe and the BCCA Friends charity. Part of the building was given a grade II listing by English Heritage in July 2008.

Katherine Edgar and Linda Ni'man outside the BCCA

 

 

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Local stores face crisis

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Shops in Westbourne are facing an up-hill struggle in line with national statistics, released by the British Retail Consortium this morning.

With more shops closing than opening, according to BRC, shop owners are having to work harder to keep their stores open. They face competition from large out-of-town retail parks that entice the consumer with free parking and cheaper online websites.

Fab Frocks of Westbourne, Seymour Road, is downsizing to just one half of its current size as the lease is due to expire-all around ‘to let’ signs stretch as far as the eye can see.

Nicky Hunter, owner of Les Enfants on the corner of the old arcade in Westbourne said that this year the shop had to go ‘into sale’ early-nearly two weeks before Christmas, whereas normally they would start the sales in January.

“The sale is still ongoing as we have so much stock to shift,” she said. “Walk-in customers are simply not here. Whereas during Christmas we should’ve been very busy every shopkeeper [in the arcade] went, ‘Where is everybody?’”

“Business rates have gone up and up and up. We have had to branch out online in order to compete. We’ve set up a Facebook shop which has 5000 followers. We’ve yet to see how it performs but the costs are negligible compared with setting up a website and we’re run off our feet with online orders.”

The store has been open for twenty years but the most rapid decline in sales has been within the last year. However, her sister shop, second-hand store Arthur and Martha’s has gone ‘from strength to strength’, which corresponds to figures provided that charity shops and pawn brokers are ‘bucking the trend’, according to the Daily Mail, last Friday.

However, with one in five people having no spare cash after bills, according to a poll carried out by the i newspaper, it seems that consumers don’t have the spare income to justify unnecessary expenditure and these local boutiques may have to continue to struggle.

The shop located next to the arcade.

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Bournemouth based group ‘Latin Quarter’ reunite

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Steve Skaith

A Bournemouth teacher who was lead singer of a famous 80’s band has reformed the group with a concert in Westbourne.

Steve Skaith, a 60-year-old teacher from Southbourne, has reunited the group ‘Latin Quarter’ who are best known for their 1986 top twenty hit ‘Radio Africa’.

The folk rock band played a reunion gig at Centre Stage in Westbourne on Sunday evening. It was the line up’s first concert together since they split in 1998.

Steve, who teaches English at Kaplan International College in Westbourne, said: “It’s been an interesting experience. It’s taken us about a year to get back together. We’ve only been able to meet up once a month but we’ll feel more like a band when we get back on the road.”

Latin Quarter have recorded a new album ‘Ocean Head’, which is released on the 17thof

Latin Quarter

February. They are also about to embark on a three-week tour of Germany.

The band will also play a gig in London in April when they return from Germany. They hope to follow this up with a UK tour.

Steve plays guitar and is lead vocalist in the band. He has lived and worked in Bournemouth with his wife and son for five years.

In their previous career Latin Quarter released 6 studio albums and 19 singles and sold over half a million albums worldwide. Highlights of their career included performances on Top of the Pops and the Old Grey Whistle Test.

Another highlight was playing in front of more than 50,000 people on the main stage at Glastonbury in 1986.

Over 100 people turned up to watch the reunion concert at Centre Stage.

Kevin Willis, a colleague of Steve’s at Kaplan College, said: “It’s weird to see him in such a different environment but it’s great to see him doing what he loves, and with the original band.”

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