Indie News Week, organised by the Public Interest News Foundation, is themed around the idea of ‘no news is bad news’ – what happens when news services like ours cease to be?
Running between June 3 and June 9, the campaign is founded on the belief that a well-informed community is more able to act together to shape its own future, that local news is fundamental to a healthy democratic society and invaluable in helping to create strong communities.
When local news providers are forced to close down – usually due to financial pressures – it means that you know less, understand less, and can do less.
As much as I would love to take money out of the equation, it costs a lot to cover local news professionally.
From the feel-good news which helps bind our communities, to the questioning of elected politicians, we all have to get paid. Then there are the fixed costs such as office rental, insurance, newspaper printing, the list at times can be endless.
The old business model of local journalism being supported by local advertising is disintegrating at a furious rate.
Social media and search engines means there are now more ways than ever for businesses to reach potential customers – they no longer have just the one option, which was how local news was previously sustained.
The knock-on effect is that local professional journalism across the UK is dying, but our mission is to try and save it here in the county borough.
We still have a successful fortnightly print edition, launched 11 years ago, which advertisers want to be involved with (not everyone prefers their news online) and our journalism is recognised as a leading light of independent media contrasting against the darkness our industry faces.
But the future is still one fraught with difficulties.
We believe that a sustainable local media is one where our readers are with us in supporting our aims and supporting us financially.
We currently have a community of around 130 paying members, but this needs to grow if we are to continue and develop what we do.
It costs from just £1 a month (although members often support us with more) and for that you can use our website without adverts – taking the commercial pressure off us.
The more readers who support us, the more journalism we can do.
As part of Indie News Week, we’ll be holding an informal event at our base at Caerphilly Miners Centre for the Community on Watford Road, Caerphilly, on Saturday June 8 between 10am and 1pm.
We’re opening our doors for readers to come along and meet us and find out more about what we do.
More importantly it will be a chance for us to find out more about you and how we can serve you better by covering the issues and stories that are important to you.
Richard Gurner
Editor and Publisher of Caerphilly Observer