| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Whose quote this is about 'Around Ealing' | |
| Posted by: | Paul Cavanagh | |
| Date/Time: | 03/04/09 09:25:00 |
| Phil, you made the point earlier about the papers being 'sullen' about being asked to put the bin times in for free. Yet it would seem that Around Ealing gets 'paid' to provide the same service. Surely it should be the other way round with the paper being paid for providing a service and the Council Magazine putting in key local information at no cost to the tax payer. The sullen response of the newspapers is probably explained by the fact that one of them has closed recently and the other has closed their office in Ealing. From what you say Ealing Council is demanding of them that publish public information for free that previously they would have been paid for. It is a reasonable assumption that they are being asked to do this because the internal advertising budget for individual campaigns is now being transferred completely to Around Ealing. This would mean that the £85,000 cost mentioned is really an accounting sleight of hand. It would be wrong to blame Ealing Council totally for the decline of local media in the area but it is quite clear that Around Ealing is a contributory factor. The Gazette remains a reasonable local paper but it is nowhere near as good as it was three or four years ago. Does it not strike you as ironic that a Conservative administration has entered a business sector using taxpayers' money with a resulting loss of local jobs in the private sector and the closure of one business? |