Three days ago I asked Is Northcliffe quietly giving up on newspapers? That was prompted by the sale of the paid-for title, the Wellington Weekly News. But a worse fate has befallen the freesheet that shares its offices, the Taunton Times, which is to be closed after next Thursday's issue with the loss of six editorial jobs.
That news prompted a former Taunton Times staffer with "a great fondness for the paper" to write to me, pointing out that it exhibited the editorial values of a paid-for paper. That's why it regularly won awards and was so highly regarded by journalists on the rival Somerset County Gazette that some of them offered story tips to the Times. Oh yes, and 50,000 readers rather liked it too.
So I ask again: is Northcliffe really interested in running newspapers any longer? And one more question: could it be that the Daily Mail & General Trust's regional division is being sacrificed in order to provide necessary funds to fight the London freesheet newspaper war?
