Concern over loss of regional press archives
In a phrase widely attributed to former Washington Post publisher Philip L. Graham journalism was memorably described as “the rough first draft of history.” But now historians are warning that an “informational vacuum” is being created by the loss of regional press archives in the digital age. According to media website Hold The Front Page (HTFP), experts in the study of media are claiming their colleagues are being “robbed” by the decline of printed local newspapers and have called for a “strategic approach” to preserving journalists’ stories for future generations.
In a debate for the magazine History Today historians have given their opinion on the topic and raised concerns about how they will “study the provincial past when they can’t read all about it”.
HTFP reported in 2017 how former Local World titles had lost their publicly-accessible online archives when their websites were upgraded following the group’s merger with Trinity Mirror, now Reach plc. Then last year, Hampshire Chronicle editor Kimberley Barber appealed for readers to help fill a “black hole” in her newspaper’s archives that had emerged over the past seven years due to Hampshire Record Office not holding copies of the title from 2015 onwards.
And as HTFP reported last month, a website designed to digitise the newspaper archives of the former Archant group has disappeared without explanation.
Martin Conboy, emeritus professor of journalism history at the University of Sheffield, claimed in his piece for History Today that “the majority of the local press no longer functions as a resource of record”. He wrote: “Hyperlocal productions, blogs and civic reportage can cover some of the scope of the traditional local newspaper, but for historians to come it will be the lack of systematic records that will create an informational vacuum. They will be forced to look elsewhere for the rich accounts of life outside the southeast of the UK that local newspapers once provided.”
Carole O’Reilly, senior lecturer in media and cultural studies at the University of Salford, noted that historians have often “relied on the local press for valuable snapshots of everyday life”, citing examples including births, marriages and deaths and classified advertising pages.
She added: “The loss of the printed local newspaper has robbed historians of many crucial opportunities to learn about their communities, the mechanisms of democracy and the changing character of any given locality.”
Rachel Matthews (pictured) Associate Head of Research at Coventry University’s School of Media said: “A lack of engagement with the workings of the local newspaper industry means this historical source is often poorly understood.”
Rachel, who joined the University as an Associate Professor in Journalism following a 15-year career in newspapers, added: “Ironically the current decline may offer an opportunity to redress this balance. A strategic approach to preserving this sort of data might actually turn the current decline into an opportunity for the historian.”
