A FREE, monthly newspaper that has been serving Glasgow for 14 years has been closed down.
Local News Glasgow reached issue 151 in December, before owner/editor, Grace Franklin, was forced to make the decision, due to difficulties generating sufficient advertising revenue.
Founded initially as Local News for Southsiders, which was then joined by a separate title – Local News for Westenders – before the two were merged into Local News Glasgow; the paper comprised Franklin, her long-time associate, Jo-Anne Kessler, and various sales staff. Kessler’s role was in admin and it is understood she has plans to launch an advertising-led publication – News in the City – with much less editorial than was in Local News Glasgow.
Editorial for the paper was provided by Franklin and a group of trusted freelances, mainly writers Erik Geddes, Lynsay Keough, Elyas Hussain and photographer, Stuart Maxwell. The print run was 40,000.
Last year, the paper moved to new, city-centre premises, to coincide with the appointment of a promising advertising sales team, but the early optimism soon disappeared as advertising sales failed to materialise in sufficient numbers.
“If I had been a hard-nosed business person, I would have wrapped it up a long time ago. Towards the end, it was the love of it, rather than money, that kept it going,” Franklin told allmediascotland.
Franklin has returned to being a freelance journalist and plans to run a web-based paper and weekly eNews magazine.
