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The 19th century is the period within which the English provincial newspaper is characterised by the link between ownership and political influence in a process which has contributed to the still extant relationship between journalism and democracy. In this period, regional newspapers developed from didactic organs disseminating the values of polite society (Black, 2001), to titles overtly aligned to political parties to the extent that by 1860 they could be categorised according to their politics (Milne n.d).
Lee (1978: 118) suggests that in this epoch, two varying constructions of the provincial press – “one of Fourth Estate, with proprietorship a form of public service... the other as a press as an industry” – vie for supremacy. This paper argues political allegiance was actually integral to the economic structure of the newspaper industry as it transitioned from the high-cost, low-circulation business model sustained by Stamp Duty to the mass circulation product of an industrialised process. Therefore, the relationship between politics and paper was not an opportunistic one in which titles were exploited for political purposes; instead it was a matter of mutual dependency with political purpose an integral pillar of the newspaper’s business model.
In this reading, political purpose was used by owners to maintain the elite business model for the provincial press in opposition to the burgeoning radical press in the mid- 19th century. Following the abolition of Stamp Duty in 1855, party political allegiance is codified in the articles of incorporation for titles and politics provides the basis for early forms of chain ownership. As the century progresses, more owners are to be found in Parliament as MPs. The relationship wanes only as titles respond to the new business model necessitated by industrialisation, by placing an increased emphasis on shareholders, mass circulations and popular content.
Original archival research demonstrates how this structure is typified by The Carlisle Conservative Newspaper Company, and its titles the Carlisle Patriot and the East Cumberland News, created for the “upholding of Conservative political opinions”. Members of the Cumbrian social elite were among the founding members and such was the significance of Conservative principles to the company that it’s articles of association enabled anyone who was not sufficiently dedicated to the cause to be removed as a shareholder. Significantly, it also demonstrates how maintaining a business structure allied to party politics enabled these titles to resist the absorption by conglomerates which befell so many other titles as the 20th century began.

During the Second World War the provincial newspaper industry in England saw itself as playing a key role in supporting their communities. Professional pride was taken in the continuity of production – often in the face of adversity – and sales figures evidence that demand for local papers was at an all-time high at this time. This characterization of the local press as serving the good the community was self-proclaimed and documented in industry material produced in the aftermath of the conflict (Fletcher, 1946). However, alternative narratives including Mass Observation evidence (ref 495: 18.11.40), dispute the benefit of these titles.
An historical analysis of the development of the provincial press in Great Britain enables us to chart the rise of ‘functioning for the good of the community’ as a professional value which underwrites the practice of those producing these newspapers (see Jackson, 1971; Cox and Morgan, 1974; Murphy, 1974 and, more recently Franklin et al 2006). It highlights the notion of “functioning for the good of the community” as a complex discursive position, based on the competing tensions of newspapers as businesses, organized to make a profit, and of newspapers as guardians of the public interest in their areas.
As such it enables a critical approach the content of these titles during World War II and suggests we assess its relevance to the paper’s own interests in addition to that of the readers they seek to target.

Evidence suggests that communities value local media (Fenton et al, 2010). However, increasingly established media platforms have been criticised for acting in way which reduces the established value of “serving the good of the community” (Jackson, 1971; Cox and Morgan, 1973) to a functionalist principle as local papers are “local in name only” (Franklin, 2006: xxi). In this conception, both titles and news workers are prevented from acting according to this ideological ideal by a business structure which favours efficiency and the bottom line.

A range of practices are emerging as an attempt to address this perceived lack. Among them is the Cov Life partnership project – which brings together journalists, academics and students to experiment with community-based media.
Cov Life exists as a community media platform. It was envisaged as, and now operates as, a research-led pedagogical instrument at the heart of a third-year undergraduate module which interrogates the future of journalism practice. It has now expanding as a mechanism to deliver funded research projects working with Coventry University’s Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations to investigate the impact of media platforms on specific sections of the community. The next step is to establish Coventry TV as a social enterprise which will test a public-private partnership business model for local media. As such we suggest it may offer a sustainable alternative to the conglomerate form of ownership which currently dominates the political economy of the of local news titles.

Matthews, R (2017) 'The socio-local newspaper: creating a sustainable future for the legacy provincial news industry.' in Berglez, P., Olausson, U. and Orts, M. (eds) Sustainable Journalism, Peter Lang Publishing.


The dominant prediction for the economic future for the UK-based provincial press is not hopeful. The twin drivers of the advent of digital technology and the post-2008 recession are such that traditional news brands are no longer able to count on the massive advertising profits they once enjoyed. Indeed, the majority of commentators argue that the once-great industry, dominated by a few huge corporations, is in a state of managed decline as established brands seek to maximize revenue from the residual value their products exercise. At the same time, however, this state of affairs has produced anxiety for those who see these titles as stitched into the fabric of community life; seen as pillars of local life, these titles are understood to perform a localized democratic function, acting as watchdogs to scrutinize those in power. This means the centralization or closure of titles is understood to have a detrimental effect on those areas who have looked to them as traditional sources of information and, in turn, brings a sense of urgency to the question of the sustainability of these titles.

These two positions reveal the duality which underwrites the understanding of the local and regional newspaper in the UK. On the one hand it is a free market product, which draws its profit from advertising; from this perspective the reader is little more than a target audience for that market. However, on the other is the social role which the newspaper has carved out for itself – a role which justifies its professional operation in terms of its democratic ideological value, refined from the national notion of fourth estate to the localized ideal of serving the good the community. This essay offers a critique of the dominant strategy of the corporate-owned industry to suggest that it is at odds with this ideological value. It suggests that instead, the economic sustainability of the industry lies in its ability to revalue its social role and introduces the idea of the socio-local newspaper. The conclusion is that for the local and regional press, journalism which is economically sustainable must also have a social dimension because it is the placing of the professional value of serving the good of the community at the heart of the business which will enable newspapers to continue.

Existing for the good the community has been an established claim to legitimacy for the English regional press since the nineteenth century. Expressed varying as a localized version of the fourth estate or ‘parish pump patriotism’, this article understands this notion as a discursive position which underwrites claims by the local newspaper to act as a watchdog on behalf of those readers it seeks to serve. As such it serves an ideological function and justifies the normative practices of the industry. However, interviews with newspaper workers suggest that while the good of the community remains a key professional value, increasingly they feel compromised in their ability to uphold it due to the economic environment in which they are operating. It concludes with the proposition that the political economy of the local newspaper needs to invest in real terms in the good of the community if its normative function is to be retained.

The dominant debate surrounding the legacy local and regional newspaper industry in the UK is one of terminal decline – prompted by the existential threat to advertising revenues which have provided profit for titles since the mid-19 th century. This threat is also used justify the corporate response to falling revenues of cost-cutting and closure. However, this paper suggests this 'mini-max' strategy is underwritten by a collective amnesia which besets the industry. This approach leaves normative conceptions, including finding profit in advertising, unchallenged so industry becomes entrenched in a way of working which limits alternative responses (Cestino and Matthews 2016). An historical approach to the local newspaper as a distinct media form, though, conceptualises the current crisis-hit advertising-led model as an epoch, rather than an end. This facilitates a deeper engagement with the route by which the corporate newspaper arrived at the point it finds itself at today, and an appreciation of the strategic responses and which might provide an alternative to the corporate model which dominates the UK landscape. Together these enable us to dare to imagine a future for those legacy titles.

Section 3. Contemporary perceptions of the provincial press and the good of the community. Chapter 10. The 'good of the community' and newsworkers A tangled web? Relations with the community in the era of Web 2.0 Chapter 11. Journalists' perceptions of the 'good of the community' How 'serving the good of the community' resonates with newsworker The 'good of the community' as a functional principle Virtual communities When the 'good of the community' rings hollow with journalists Section 4. The provincial press: present forms and future forecasts. Chapter 12. Crisis-what crisis? The survival of the fittest Local newspapers: shifting landscapes The impact of digital on editorial working practices The ideological challenge for the future of local newspapers Where else lies the future? Appendices References just a little more easily. They should not relax their guard too much. The Liverpool Post may not be publishing anymore, but its investigative spirit is alive and well in the Echo and in journalists who will continue to fight for your interests and to uncover the important truths that officialdom would be happier to keep under wraps." (www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk: 18.12.13) It is this role of the local paper as a 'watchdog', which plays a key role in local communities, which lever the most impact in debates around the significance of, and the need for, the industry. These contemporary arguments, explored at length in chapter 12, are made at the highest level; Lord Justice Leveson paid tribute to the ability of the regional press to fulfil this role when ruling on statutory regulation of the press (House of Commons, 2012: 6-7). The roots of this debate are though to be found in postwar Britain in the context of the concentration of ownership of the provincial newspaper industry. The comparison between those detailed discussions now and then (see Chapter 7), enables us to appreciate the inertia that has surrounded these issues for more than 50 years. As such, this historical approach can reveal those similarities and attempt to free the arguments rehearsed from the dogma of the Liberal view of the free press which appears to mire them in inaction. This conception of the provincial press as serving the good of the community is also a role valued by those working within the industry and which informs their day-today routines, including the stories they chose to cover (local councils being a prime example). In interviews carried out as part of this thesis time and again editorial staff at a selection of provincial papers in England claimed their role was to inform and reflect the concerns of their communities. These journalists see their titles as the "voice of their communities", and themselves as "watchdogs" (Interviewee 1IWE), watching out for those unable to watch out for themselves. Indeed, such is the primacy of this approach that it is embedded within both past and current training regimes for journalists in the UK and, as such, knowledge of local and national government continues to form one of five 'mandatory' subjects for the National Council for the Training of Journalists. In 2013 The Newspaper Society, the body which represents the interests of the regional and local newspaper industry, took press freedom as its theme-interpreting this for its

Existing for the good the community has been an established claim to legitimacy for the English regional press since the nineteenth century. Expressed varying as a localized version of the fourth estate or ‘parish pump patriotism’, this article understands this notion as a discursive position which underwrites claims by the local newspaper to act as a watchdog on behalf of those readers it seeks to serve. As such it serves an ideological function and justifies the normative practices of the industry. However, interviews with newspaper workers suggest that while the good of the community remains a key professional value, increasingly they feel compromised in their ability to uphold it due to the economic environment in which they are operating. It concludes with the proposition that the political economy of the local newspaper needs to invest in real terms in the good of the community if its normative function is to be retained.

This document is the author's post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.