First a disclaimer: I left regional journalism in the mid 90s in a bit of a huff. I had several beefs, but the main one was that local newspapers were in denial over how the rise of the internet and its ability to digitise media would mean their approach to delivering content would have to change. Back then, early local newspaper web sites were just brochureware giving ad rates and contact details.

Since then, what seems to have followed from regional publishers is a series of pretty short-sighted approaches to playing catch-up.

Over a cup of tea yesterday with Steve Dyson, who until recently was editor of the Birmingham Mail and has 20-plus years as a regional hack, we chatted about how regional newspaper groups and independent local papers dealt with the opportunity and threat of the internet in the past decade, what they’re doing now and what their options are for the future.

If you follow the views of media observers, you could easily be led to think that future is not rosy. Yet amidst the tales of falling circulations, slimmer papers and mass job cuts, it is clear that demand for content is healthier than ever and local information is highly prized. Done right, the internet offers opportunities for regional publishers to address some of the weaknesses in their business models that have been building for years (e.g. ad sales sliding yet people prepared to pay for pictures that feature their kids or interest groups).

So 80 per cent of UK adults apparently still read a local paper. Yet the print side, which aims to get right to the heart of local community issues, is bearing the brunt of the job cuts while online regional news content seems to be getting more and more distanced from towns and cities.

Steve’s view on this, and I share it, is that publishers must align their online content operations with their print ones, rather than driving a wedge between them. As things stand, the most appealing content sits in the print operations, yet more management focus is on the online side, and due to the commercial realities of publishing at the moment the online side is getting more and more centralised. So stories are recycled and applied across multiple localities, regardless of whether each of those communities is actually interested.

So online shovels out a load of regional or national content that is then hastily localised? Sounds like the bad old days of PR (or, some might say, some bad PR material they’ve seen recently).

My thinking is just as conventional and social media will one day all just be media, so print and online regional press will just be local press – providing the regional publishers that own them can see the light on that. Content is king: people want (and are willing to pay for) local content, so let’s use the formats that now exist to deliver local content in the way people want it.

The internet even allows better engagement with local communities: look at the level of comments stirred by contentious local news and how publishers are actively encouraging it. You can’t get that sort of reader engagement with a regional content model. It’s why community blogs are doing so well.

Some other points from the cuppa with Steve:
- PRs need to better understand the shifts happening in regional media, and that really there is no regional press, it’s all local press
- Local journalism is not dying, it has been winded and is evolving in many different directions
- Question: have regional publishing groups got too big to deliver local content effectively without overhauling their operations?
- Social media may be getting the attention at the moment but there’s no substitute for journalistic nouse

PRs now needing to shape content to fit the needs of diversified media could do much worse than get to grips with how local news is compiled and produced. Steve is running a day course on this, alongside other journalists from broadcast, business and online media. It’s in Birmingham on 10 May, email him or see here for details.