Local papers on the web
No self-respecting newspaper is without a web presence. The FT has poured tens of millions of pounds into FT.com and produced a stupendous website on which all life can found-eventually. It is also accompanied by excellent daily e-mail digests. Of the other broadsheets, the Guardian's, guardian.co.uk, is the best by miles, with pages of additional reporting, sample chapters from books, a superb archive and a comprehensive weblog from the world's media.
The version of Britain presented by these snappy metropolitan publications is only partial. For the local press, "Newspapers in Britain," wrx.zen.co.uk, provides a giddying number of links to hundreds of local and national publications, including the Alloa Wee County News, the Aspatria News and Star and, my favourite, the Cowbridge Gem. Each has transferred some (often all) of its content onto the web to present a mix of news, community pages, competitions ("WIN Ainsley Harriot's barbecue sauces and dips!") and classified ads operated by the ubiquitous Fish4 (a dot-com business model that actually works).
Sitting on the intersection of the local and national news, thisislancashire.co.uk, the website of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, has covered impressively the rise of the right and the recent election of three BNP councillors in Burnley. Its archive of more than 100 articles and letters is a compelling street-level account of 12 months of marches and riots, polarisation and bewilderment. Read consecutively, the story acquires character and detail that the national media has passed over. Not surprisingly, the letters pages have been a battleground and hint at an orchestrated campaign to legitimise the far right. According to one correspondent "I don't think for one minute [BNP voters] are racists. They are just saying enough is enough-that too much money is being spent on illegal immigrants." Another writes: "the BNP have not cast any spells. They have only promised to stop any further immigration into Britain. It is that one simple policy that attracts supporters to their cause." Taken together, the coverage is gripping and sounds a note of caution to anyone seeking to straightforwardly extrapolate what is particular into what is general.
framleyexaminer.com, however, is the ultimate local newspaper. Its latest issue leads with "Courage of Conker Boy" by its star writer, Challenger Putney. There are plenty of spoofs on the net, but this affectionate and incredibly intricate send-up of small-town journalism is laugh-out-loud funny. Latest stories include "Lesbians Demand Footbridge," "Voice of Devil Heard" ("The voice of the devil has again been heard in Stockford. Police last year received more than 350 incidents of Satan's cruel whispering") and "Local Man Neither Local nor Man." Hilarious.
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