Media | Steve Middletons blog

Prestwich Advertiser to cease publication

From The Manchester Evening News website: Next week’s edition of the Prestwich Advertiser will be the last time that the newspaper is published. The newspaper’s owners, MEN Media, has had to take the difficult decision to cease publication due to rising production costs and the challenging economy, both of which have made the Advertiser no…

You may have seen or heard misleading news reports today suggesting that the UK Border Agency is breaking its pledge to end the detention of children. UKBA has responsed to these misleading news reports and has emphasised the need to hold families at the border, while making clear the bold changes the agency has made to the…

Landline tax + Digital TV surplus = Broadband for all (but a cold home)

In February, I reported the fact that the Government had underspent £130m of digital TV switchover money that was destined for the over-75s. The money was supposed to offer financial and technical assistance for set-top boxes, to ensure that the vulnerable were able to continue to watch free-to-air TV channels. The fund has now built…

Investigation into Life in Salford launched

by Tom Rodgers, originally posted over at Salford Online As part of its Digital Britain report, the government is to launch an investigation into free council newsletters including John Merry’s baby, Life in Salford, to discover the effect they are having on the local press. The report said it would be “against the public interest”…

41 jobs axed at Manchester’s Channel M

Just heard the terrible news that Channel M is to shed 41 of it’s 74 full-time staff are to be made redundant. This announcment, courtesy of my favourite media site Digital Spy, comes hot on the heals of Guardian Media Group’s recent decision to slash local Salford reporters and centralise the Salford Advertiser at the…

Following the goverments’ dreadful handling of the digital switchover programme, most of which was farmed out to a private company, it has been revealed that there will be a £130m a year surplus a year due to the underspend. The money was originally earmarked to provide financial & technical assistance for the new set-top boxes…

The press get critised a lot these days for putting their own “spin” on a story, in order to make it sell or at least ensure it’s watched more than the other channel (or read more than the other paper). But I think if we live in a society of free speech and aim to…