Owzat! Press cricket coverage caught out by job cuts

Regional press titles have been urged to vocalise their opposition to journalism job cuts which will see them “lose significant provision” of cricket coverage.

Media website Hold The Front Page reports that the Cricket Writers’ Club says it is “deeply concerned” about cuts to the England and Wales Cricket Board’s central Reporters Network service, which provides match reports for a number of regional titles across the country.

The network usually has a roster of 18 reporters, but in 2021 only six will be engaged to cover all 18 professional county teams in England after funding for the service was cut from an estimated £89,000 in 2019 to £40,000 this year.

According to the CWC, journalists working for the service may be required to report on two matches at once, one of them remotely, using a mix of live streams, video highlights, scorecards and contacts with the counties’ PR teams to cover the match they are not attending.

Those involved will also be limited to a maximum of 300 words for their reports at the end of each day’s play.

The Leicester Mercury, Derby Telegraph, Bristol Post, Brighton daily The Argus and Portsmouth daily The News are understood to be among the titles which currently make use of the network, as well as organisations such as the BBC and PA.

The service was set up by the ECB in 2014 with the help of CWC to ensure the domestic game received written coverage.  Since then, its reporters have provided coverage to over 200 media outlets.