Local newspapers ‘not the next Nottingham Forest’

Industry get-togethers are often at risk of giving off an air of back-slapping, but the editor of the Connacht Tribune was more than alert to the danger during his entertaining chairing of the Local Newspaper Symposium in Dublin last week.

After noting local titles’ connection to their communities, their trustworthiness and longevity, and the fact that readers spend an average of 69 minutes consuming each issue – “a multiple of the time spent reading a national newspaper” – Dave O’Connell changed tone.

“In our mind, we’re great, so we can all go home now.”

Except. . .

For the journalism students in the audience, O’Connell had a football analogy.

"Nottingham Forest were once great," he explained to those too young to remember the club's back-to-back European Cup winning days under charismatic manager Brian Clough. The problem is they thought they always would be.

“What happened? They were relegated. And they have never been back in the top division since.”

The local newspaper industry might be in better shape now than it has been in years, but there is certainly no call for smugness or complacency.

“I know that we know we’re not too good to fail, but we need to get that message across,” he said.

“We’re not the next Nottingham Forest.”