Regular readers of this blog will know that there is one subject that excercises me more than most, and that is our money being spent by this Council on party political propaganda dressed up as impartial news. The practice is thankfully rare in the UK and reminds you more of eastern Europe in the 1980s yet here in Hammersmith & Fulham we taxpayers fork out hundreds of thousands every year for the Council's own propaganda paper, offically called H&F News but better known as Pravda.According to the Fulham Chronicle this costs us £174,292 every year. How many police officers or nurses could that employ instead?
The Council has been condemned for doing this by their own Conservative colleagues in Parliament, and in local government yet still continue the practice. They have been condemned repeatedly by residents at public meetings and yet still they continue. And of course by their political opponents, which they dismiss as politically motivated.
The result is that the independent press is driven out of business because they hoover up the advertising revenue and residents are robbed of any independent coverage of what is actually going on in their borough. At one stage, when the Fulham Chronicle was sacking staff and selling off its offices this blog was pretty much the only source of non-political news in H&F. In recent weeks the Chronicle has made an attempt at a come-back with a free-delivery model, but they are clearly struggling with copies of the paper failing to be delivered in large parts of the borough judging by the comments I've received from readers.
So it's time to support their campaign against this status-quo and you can help do this by supporting the Chronicle's campaign and by signing their petition to have H&F News closed down. We deserve a free press in this borough, and all you have to do is sign a petition to help bring it a step closer. I strongly urge you to back this campaign.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your support of our campaign, it is much appreciated and, obviously, the more people who sign the petition, the better.
I must just point out, however, that the problems we are experiencing with deliveries are by no means an indication that the newspaper is struggling as a whole. Far from it - we have relaunched as a free with every intention of remaining here for the next 122 years.
Our difficulties with deliveries, which we are making every effort to address, appears to stem from a few rogue dispatchers who, it is highly suspected, are dumping copies in the bin without delivering them.
We are looking into this right now. Meanwhile, I'd like to remind you and your readers that all our news can be found on www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk, our website which is updated at least twice per day.
Many thanks again for your support,
Adam Courtney
..and that concludes the free advertising slot from Adam Courtney of the Fulham Chronicle. He won't mind me pointing out that stories frequently appear here before the Chronicle's site picks them up, often coming from readers themselves. Will you Adam?!
ReplyDeleteHi Chris
ReplyDeleteAs distribution manager for the Chronicle I am always disappointed when copies of my papers are not delievered as they should be. For the record, our Chronicle distribution over the first 10 weeks of 2010 is running at 95.89%, averaging some 68,931 copies per week - according to independent, third-party checking.
Of course we sometimes have individuals who, for whatever reason, fail to take on their round at any given time. With our agent network in place we try to keep this to a minimum.
However, if you could provide me with any more specific feedback (rather than "large parts of the borough") it would certainly assist with my internal investigations too.
Many thanks, David
Good luck with this! Here in Chiswick, our local paper has long since gone and instead we receive a publication called "Hounslow Matters" Hounslow is, I understand, somewhere miles to the west of London.
ReplyDeleteThe answer is not, though, to put out an equally slanted piece of garbage though is it? Try and find any balanced journalism in the chronicle. Red all over. It would be quite nice to actually have some news put through my door.
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