A Visit to the Worcester News

As I was planning my "Deciding What's News"course to teach here in Worcester, I learned that I would have some money to fund a field trip.  Initially, it seemed possible that my students and I could travel to London to visit the London Times and the BBC.  Unfortunately, I learned that wouldn't be possible given any number of variables, so I had to come up with Plan B.

Fortunately, Plan B was a LOT cheaper (free, in fact) and a LOT closer (just down the road in fact).  Worcester has a BBC radio presence (Worcester-Hereford) and the Worcester News (a daily).  After numerous phone calls back and forth, and some assistance from one of our student workers, bippety-boppety-boo, everything was arranged for one week ago yesterday--the representative from the BBC scheduled a tour before noon, and then the Worcester News tour was to take place in the afternoon.  The organizations are housed in neighboring buildings/facilities on the Hylton Road just a few blocks from the University of Worcester campus.

A week ago last Tuesday, I learned that the BBC tour wasn't going to happen.  Best laid plans...fizzle.  Fortunately, however, Worcester News remained viable.

Our class meets at 2:15, so that's when we planned to meet at reception.  Each member of the class received a pass, and we were guided to the Newsroom Bullpen.  Our host was the News Editor, Stephanie Preece.   She described the structure of the Bullpen with the news desks at the front of the room, Sports on the south side of the room, Social Media in the center, Photogs in the back.

Stephanie emphasized the extreme local focus of the paper.  When asked if there would be any coverage of the U.S. elections, she said there wasn't likely to be a local angle.  I found that a bit odd given that she had eight American visitors standing in the Bullpen, but I guess our visitor status doesn't make us sufficiently local.

I had asked the students to generate questions for our visit, but only two of the students obliged.  One of the questions concerned the importance of social media.  Not surprisingly, social media are extraordinarily important to the modern newspaper.  Stephanie identified it as a vehicle for story ideas and tips.

One student posed a question in the moment regarding the strangest story the News has ever run.  Stephanie said that one of the oddest stories they ever did focused on an individual who had used social media as a means of selling cocaine.

Another question posed in the moment concerned the potential rivalry with the BBC next door.  Stephanie indicated that there wasn't too much rivalry given that the Worcester News is a newspaper and the BBC is a radio service, but the potential to be scooped is real and does occur from time to time.

One of the big surprises was that the paper is owned by the Newsquest Media Group, which was acquired by Gannett in 1999.  NMG is the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the United Kingdom.  The site on Hylton Road also publishes four other publications, including weeklies such as the Malvern Gazette and Ledbury Reporter.  It is also the publisher of the Berrow's Weekly Journal which boasts of being the longest continuously sponsored newspaper in the world having started in 1690.  Other publications produced newspapers earlier.

Claims of "firsts" are always tricky.  There are always interesting variants of what kind of "first" an entity claims--first newsletter, first newspapers (regularly scheduled and produced organ of information of interest to a particular population) first weekly, first daily, etc., etc.  It's important to ask why these distinctions are important.  I wrote a dissertation about a "first" and "continuously produced" media vehicle.  I concluded that endurance matters beyond longevity as it suggests continuing appeal and value. Audience loyalty counts for a great deal.

After the newsroom, we moved down to the production unit of the paper.  Our host, Steve, had obviously done a LOT of preparation. He had prepared a number of diagrams demonstrating how the pages are arranged.

He had thought through what he wanted to share and offered a very thorough and focused presentation.  He started by showing us how they produce the offset plates.

He also showed us how the paper travels through the machinery.

We learned about the paper contract with the Norwegian paper companies and the annual price negotiations.
We learned about the difference between the local operation and the parent company (Gannett) in terms of those negotiations.  Paper has been one of the biggest costs of running the newspaper for a number of decades. 

Steve told us about the forest management system and the recycling plan for newsprint.

The Worcester News is a four-color paper.

These towers are vats of yellow, red, blue and green ink.

I asked about unions.  Steve informed us that when he first started, union presence was much more significant and varied than it is now.  Some of the rules were borderline ridiculous--only certain people were permitted to handle certain items.  One couldn't return from holiday even a minute too soon or else incur the ire of the union, etc.  There's still a union presence, but it's greatly diminished.  I think there's a story there.

We ended our tour in the assembly room.

I was so impressed by the care Steve had taken in preparing for our visit--it had the mark of a thoughtful and committed professional.

So...while it might not have been as glamorous as the London Times or the BBC, it was a very informative presentation.  I hope my students valued it as much as I did.