The Barnsley Chronicle
In September 2018, I had the genuine pleasure of spending a week at the Barnsley Chronicle, documenting the work and effort that goes into producing Yorkshire’s biggest selling weekly newspaper.
As some of you will be aware, I’m a Northern soul, originating from Sheffield, a few miles down the road from Barnsley, so it was a pleasure to be back on home soil.
It’s been clear for some time that the print media industry is in a state of flux, with readers getting more of their news from online sources such as social media sites. With this in mind, I suggested spending some time with a local newspaper, but my editor added a proviso, stating it should only go ahead if I could find a publication that was produced and printed entirely in-house, telling the whole story. As the crisp sound of ideas being shot down from the blue sky in my head rang out, I approached the lovely people at Printweek for help. After some digging around, they came up with the answer; The Barnsley Chronicle.
Launched in 1858 and still privately owned today by the Hewitt family, the Barnsley Chronicle is a real rarity in the industry as more local publications are bought up by large media companies. Bucking the trend, the Chronicle still prints on-site, with a staff of young reporters covering the town of Barnsley and surrounding villages. The hyper-local coverage provided by the paper ensures that residents know that the stories covered can’t be found in national or even regional papers. I say “hyper-local” as when asked if the Chronicle would cover a nuclear bomb in nearby Sheffield, I was jokingly told the headline would be about fall-out fears for the Barnsley region.
As they have their own printing facility and distribution team, I was given the opportunity to follow an edition from start to finish; from the very first conference on Monday, where ideas were shared and tweaked, through to the final moment when the finished product was posted through a reader’s letterbox.
The issue that came up a number of times throughout my visit was that of “local vs national”, but not of which was best, but rather which was harder to produce. Having worked at The Times newspaper, as well as with a number of agency news desks, I can safely say that the differences are huge. While national and international publications are flooded with interesting PR invites, major entertainment events and world-class sporting fixtures, as well as access to global news stories, the local weekly has to fight to fill the pages with fresh content purely from their patch. That’s a hell of a challenge, yet the staff at the Barnsley Chronicle accept it weekly.
It goes without saying that an element that I was really looking forward to was working with the photographers, so it was a pleasure to be able to go out on a number of assignments with freelance photographer Shaun Colborn. Regularly receiving twelve or thirteen jobs a day, the workload of a local photographer is some way from that of an agency or national newspaper photographer. Rushing between jobs in the accessory-strewn photographer's car, privately plated "CII CKK" for the traditional sound of the camera shutter, Colborn has limited time to work on each image and therefore he's developed the kind of character that can entertain, relax and calm the most nervous subject.
If you only have minutes to get a picture, you don't have any time to waste on slowly easing your way into someone's trust. It's very easy to mock the "angry person in a local newspaper" style of imagery that you often find in smaller publications, but not only is that the house style of many local papers, the photographers simply don't have the luxury of time. I was e-mailed a Saturday assignment list by a friend of mine who works on a regional weekly a while ago, and was shocked to see that he had fourteen jobs. Not only that, but there were usually two or three starting at the same time, resulting in him having to run into the venue, grab a suitable subject, pose them up, get the shot and dash to the next job.
Mike Cotton has worked his way up from general reporter to the position of Deputy Editor, assisting Editor Andrew Harrod in putting together each edition and overseeing the feel and tone of the newspaper. It may seem a cliche, but it was great to be around as a story broke, just hours before the weekly paper went to press, and to follow Cotton as he rushed out into the rain, notepad and pen in hand.
It has to be noted that despite the overall shrinking of the print media industry, the Barnsley Chronicle has chosen to follow a more measured approach to the stories that it covers, which is an admirable thing to do. The week before I arrived in Barnsley, a knife attack occurred in the shopping precinct, making national headlines. Despite some local residents immediately taking to social media to shout about the “terror attack”, and to criticise the online "We Are Barnsley" wing of the newspaper for not following their lead, the editorial team considered the verified facts and ran the story inside the next edition of the newspaper. It chose to report the facts without any of the explosive click-bait style that it could have used. It would be so easy to sell newspapers in this way, but the editorial style of providing reliable, trustworthy news is hugely important to the community.
Buried deep inside the Barnsley Chronicle buildings are the hidden archives that house editions of the newspaper dating back over a century. Leather-bound folders filled the shelves in a darkened corner of a storeroom, as Deputy Editor Mike Cotton gave me a tour through the newspaper's history. Gesturing with a smile towards a tattered volume marked "1885" (due to its "Back to the Future" relevance) Cotton has become the unofficial keeper of the back issues. Every week, he raids the archives for his "Memories of Barnsley" section, hunting out interesting stories and features from the area's past.
The letter to the Editor regarding "the recent seizure of bacon" was enough to prove that there's gold in that vault.
Throughout the week, the printing press rolls on into the night, producing publications, pull-outs and magazines for other companies, before the Barnsley Chronicle goes to print on Thursday evening.
In my sixteen years as a press photographer, it's slightly embarrassing to admit that my visit to the Barnsley Chronicle printing press was the very first time I'd seen a newspaper being printed. It might sound like a small thing, but when your work has relied on the contents of publications for this long, it was special to see how it all actually happens.
I have to mention the generosity of the print team as they managed to answer my questions, then successfully ignore me as I clambered about their press, dodging them as they dashed between stations during calibration checks and fold alignment tests.
The story reached its conclusion in the early hours of Friday morning, as I drove through the pre-dawn rain to Walker's Newsagents in nearby Elsecar, to photograph the final stage of the Barnsley Chronicle process - delivery. Owned by Suki Walker, the newsagents has been in the family for four generations, which became apparent by the friendly chat and feeling of community from the locals as they called in to pick up the latest edition. Paper boys shuffled in from the rain, quietly checked their allocation and headed back out into the drizzle as the sun began to rise. Hitching a ride with Walker as she delivered a few copies herself, it was great to complete a set that has provided a full story arc in a matter of days.
Again, I have to offer my huge thanks to the Hewitt family for allowing me access to the Barnsley Chronicle, and also to Editor Andrew Harrod and his team for their patience and support, as I briefly invaded their lives. Their professional attitude and journalistic skills are inspiring. Long live the Chronicle!
