Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Johnston Press Takeover Bid Meets Fierce Resistance

Andy Hoare | 14.02.2002 02:51

Chronicle & Echo Parent Company Makes Another Bid To Own 96% Of All The Newspaper Market In Northamptonshire. Case now refered to the Competitions Commission

Back in September Webby reported that the parent company of the Chronicle & Echo had announced on its own website that it 'had' obtained the Herald & Post newspaper, amongst others, and that this merger would give the Chronicle/Johnston Press 96% of Northamptonshire's newspaper market. AT THAT TIME (Back in September), JOHNSTON PRESS WERE NOT WILLING TO UNDERGO AN ENQUIRY BY THE COMPETITIONS COMMISSION? WHY NOT YOU MUST ASK YOURSELVES? But now, they have submitted a 'revised application', indicating that they are now willing to accept a reference to the Competition Commission? It is worth noting that I don't recall this huge story of great public interest being published in the Chronicle & Echo.......WHY NOT? Could it be that they don't want too many people objecting to the application? Could it be that they wanted time to try and put over the alleged false sense that they are actually politically unbiased? Many people in the political arena and out of it have commented to me personally that the Chronicle & Echo have "recently" began to report stories that are not in the Labour controlled Borough & County Council's favour. BUT WHY I ASK? Could it be that they did not want to be referred to the Competition Commission back in September as they knew that they had been politically bias in favour of the Labour Party locally? What is going to happen if Johnston Press do get the go ahead for this buy-out? Are the Chronicle & Echo then going to revert to their previous stance on politics and not report anything that Cllr Wire, Davies, Tony Clarke MP & Sally Keeble MP don't want printing? Even now, although they are 'AT PRESENT' giving the impression that they are not bias over the last two/three months, not one story that might portray Tony Clarke or Sally Keeble in a bad light has appeared in the Chronicle & Echo, WHY NOT? This website has uncovered some of the biggest stories that have over recent years come to light about abuse of position by both local MP's, did the Chronicle & Echo report on them -NO...Ask yourself why not if the newspaper is not bias? The newspaper ran the same story THREE TIMES about the alleged misuse of a photocopier by one political party (obviously not Labour) in as many weeks, but FAILED to run a story about exactly the same thing concerning the Labour Group....is this not political bias? There are too many incidents such as this for me to mention in this article, but I and many of our web-fans feel very strongly about the damage we believe this buy-out would cause to the people of both Northampton & Northamptonshire. For one newspaper group to own 96% of the whole newspaper market in a single County is unacceptable and certainly NOT in the publics interest. Local newspapers should report ALL stories wether they be in favour of any given political party or not - they should not be selective in their political reporting as has been the point to date with the Chronicle & Echo. The most recent incident was last week, when this outcry began about the parking restrictions in the town centre, particularly those that affected the disabled. The local BBC Radio ran with the phone-in three days on the trot - it was such a hot, overwhelming subject that the public simply kept ringing the local radio station. BBC Look East were interested and made a number of inquiries and of course, Webby broke the story first on this website. BUT WHAT DID THE CHRONICLE & ECHO REPORT ON THIS PUBLIC OUTCRY - NOTHING!!!! Oh, forgive me, they had a small column inside somewhere stating that new parking restriction were going to be enforced and that was it! They should have ran a full article on it due to the public interest on this issue. Even the Borough Council went on the BBC Radio to try and explain why they were doing this and despite the DJ's plea to alter it, the public's plea to alter it, Tim Turner, the sacrificial lamb to the slaughter stuck to a well prepared verse that the NBC would not alter their stance. IF YOU VALUE A FREE PRESS WHICH KEEPS YOU WELL INFORMED OF ALL POLITICAL STORIES THAT BREAK IN NORTHAMPTON AND THE COUNTY, THEN YOU REALLY MUST VOICE YOUR OBJECTIONS TO THE COMPETITION COMMISSION TODAY----- E-MAIL: timothy.oyler@competition-commission.org.uk This is your last chance to stop this dreadful event happening, remember that the newspaper needs you and that you don't need the newspaper! If you don't object now, then don't complain when you don't hear about all the stories for instance that we have uncovered and exposed and that the Chronicle & Echo have ignored, despite them being of a huge significance to the public of Northampton and Northants. Here is the full press release from the Competition Commission (Which you won't see printed in the Chronicle & Echo (maybe they don't think that them owning 96% of the market is of any interest to you the people of that very same market?)). PREVIOUS ARTICLE ON MERGER ATTEMPT JOHNSTON IN £16M DEAL FOR PAPERS DEAL IS BAD NEWS FOR NORTHAMPTON AND NORTHAMPTONSHIRE JOHNSTON Press, the parent company of the Evening Telegraph and Chronicle & Echo newspapers, has announced it plans to buy eight free weekly papers. Johnston Press, one of the UK's leading regional newspaper groups, is to acquire from Trinity Mirror titles which include Northampton, Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough Herald & Post series, Peterborough Herald & Post, and the Derby Trader, for £16.1m. *** The deal is subject to approval of the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. This - in Webby's opinion - is far from being in the best interests of the people of Northampton or Northamptonshire. Many people have contacted me voicing their concerns and disquiet about the alleged 'political bias' in the Chronicle & Echo's reporting and coverage of the General & County elections recently. But this is not simply a 'new' problem, this has been developing over a long period of time. I have personally contacted the Editor (Mark Edwards) asking a number of questions concerning the political reporting policy of the C&E, I hasten to add he has refused to reply to date (his actions, or lack of them - speak volumes in themselves)! ALL political parties with the exception of the UK Independence Party (and the Labour Party of course), have contacted this website and complained about how much they believe the C&E is acting and reporting political news articles - in favour of NewLabour. I for one have found little, if any evidence to rebuke these allegations. Some have gone as far as to say that Tony Clarke MP actually owes his extremely marginal seat to the C&E, while others simple say that the C&E wrapped him up in cotton wool during the lead-up to the General Election. If Johnston Press are allowed by the Secretary of State to go ahead with this purchase, the people of Northampton & Shire shall be the losers. This town and county shall then, if the allegations are correct, be NewLabour controlled and have a single newspaper organisation that is 'allegedly' NewLabour bias....NOT a recipe for good journalism or representation. I would urge everyone to write to the Secretary of State to register their objection at this proposed buy-out as a matter of urgency. Should the merger be allowed, then we should write to the Competition Commission to do exactly the same ASAP. (their addresses are at the bottom of this page). Some similarities with NewLabour can be found on page 13 in today's newspaper (10/07/2001) under the heading "Our ace reporters scoop top awards". Mark Edwards rambles on and on in the exact rhetoric and style as Mandleson did for NewLabour (and look where that got him!), playing up the role of his own organisation beyond belief. As Mandleson was the ultimate spin-doctor for NewLabour, one could be forgiven for thinking that Edwards is the spin-doctor for Johnston Press locally. I only hope that the people of Northampton don't fall for it like they did for NewLabour's spin. As for the article itself - I'll pass no further comments than I have already done on this website in the recent past, but simply state that I don't like people who deceive others for their own benefit, gain or furtherance of their own careers! It goes without saying that Webby has already registered his objection to the merger. Don't leave it to chance and hope that others might do it. BACK TO LOCAL NEWS

Andy Hoare
- e-mail: andy@6bcn.freeserve.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.westhunsbury.new.labour.org.uk/johnston_press.htm

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. peculiar mix — anon
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech