LYME MATTERS with Philip Evans

Paper chase on a Wednesday

SO ALL three local newspapers are coming out on the same day – Wednesday – following the decision by the Bridport and Lyme Regis News to move publication to a midweek slot.

Traditionally, the Bridport News was always a Friday paper but they moved it forward to a Thursday not so long ago. I was delighted when this happened because it meant the View got all the Wednesday night council news first, which gave us a slight edge.

It is unfashionable in journalism these days to spend hours covering council meetings. Most young journalists hate local government, today’s breed of reporters don’t work too many evenings any more and the Lyme News rarely attend council meetings.

Management at Newsquest South, who own the Bridport and Lyme News, say the publication day has been moved to Wednesday due to printing scheduling reasons.

I think it’s a poor move on their part as they lose their only exclusive news day over the View But these are difficult days for all publishers and financial considerations now take priority over any editorial considerations.

Bringing the paper out on a Wednesday does not mean people will necessarily buy the paper on that day. Old habits die hard and some readers who have lived in Lyme for a long time still pick up the paper on a Friday out of habit.

I kept a close eye on how sales were going at their biggest outlet on Wednesday and it did not seem to me that they sold too many. Sad man that I am, I got up at 5.30am on Wednesday to make sure the View was in Tesco before the Lyme News.

Perhaps the bosses at Weymouth think that getting the paper out a day earlier will boost their flagging sales. I doubt it.

It will make no difference to the View. Our papers are picked up throughout the week and we regularly top up the bigger outlets right up to Sunday evening.

Currently we distribute just under 3,500 a week, with very few returns, and this will increase to 4,000 as summer approaches.

The current published circulation figure for the Lyme News is 1,153, way down on their peak a few years ago when it was touching 2,000, but still a good figure in a town of 2,000 properties.

But the two main papers coming out on the same day does mean there could be less variety for the reader.

It was very rare that the Lyme News would have the same front page story as the View when they came out 24 hours after us. Now we will both be choosing the same page one stories, as happened last week with the LymeNet grant celebration.

The third paper I referred to in the first paragraph of this story, just in case you are wondering, is the Midweek Herald who give only token coverage to events in Lyme Regis.

Exciting times for the invigorated View

A BIG thank-you to the many readers who over the past few weeks have written to us, e-mailed, telephoned and stopped me in the street to say how pleased they are that we managed to overcome our financial difficulties before Christmas and are still in business.

We worked for weeks, often long into the night, to save the company and at one time I thought it would never happen. There were a number of parties interested in buying us out but they all but fizzled out until entrepreneur Jerry Ramsdale, owner of the Mariners Hotel in Lyme, came along out of the blue on New Year’s Eve when I was about to call the staff together and tell them our great dream was over.

It could not have been a better outcome for the future of the View and indeed the staff. The alternative was to be swallowed up by a larger group, slimmed down and used as a defensive free to keep any other mad people like me launching against them in the future.

There would have been wholesale staff losses but we have managed to keep all but two and we are still a major employer in Lyme.

Although he had no previous experience in newspapers, Jerry ran a highly successful publishing and exhibitions company in the Home Counties which he has now sold. He’s very much an ideas man and his involvement will allow us to achieve the things we wanted to do but did not have the resources for as well as implementing some excellent ideas of his own.

There’s a real air of excitement around our offices again, which is how it always used to be before we hit some problems last autumn.

Jerry is committed to developing our group of newspapers in Dorset and we are already working on some exciting innovations. For example our View 2 entertainments and leisure section is being well received and later this week we are launching a Friday digital edition called the Dorset Weekender which you will be able to access via our website – viewfromonline.co.uk – by registering free.

This will bring you up-to-date news from across the area as well as a number of features and competitions.

Soon you will also see us bombing around the area in a Smart car emblazoned with the new Lyme Media and Events corporate livery.

Since Jerry acquired the titles in January the papers have been produced by Philip Evans Media Limited, jointly owned by Jackie and I, on a contract basis whilst the View owner took a closer look at the business.

I am pleased to say that we have both agreed to join Lyme Media & Events on a permanent basis to continue to manage the papers and the other exciting events Jerry is planning in the future.

There was never any doubt that we would do so but thought it only fair and proper for Jerry to get to know the business before accepting his offer.

www.viewfromonline.co.uk