By Steven Downes, Editor, Inside Croydon
Today, the government launched a public health campaign that will not reach you.
It won’t reach you because the government has not included independently-owned community news publishers like Inside Croydon in its campaign.
The “All in, All together” campaign is a welcome response from the government to provide essential information at this time. It is also a demonstration of the government’s support for the press.
However, unless you pick up a copy of a national newspaper, some of which are owned by billionaires and tax-avoiders, it is unlikely that you will have heard about it.
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network (ICNN), which is the official trade body for independent community news publishers. Together, we reach more than 5million people online each month, and more than half a million in print. This makes us part of the fourth largest news publishing organisation in the UK.
Organisations like ours have become frontline key workers in this industry who are keeping our communities afloat with genuine, accurate and important information during this pandemic.
Sadly, we are also the ones most at risk from the current crisis. Yet the Government has seen fit to exclude us from its public health campaign. And that means they have excluded you, too.
It is critical for public health that organisations like ours continue to give essential, verified and useful information to the communities we serve.
Any public health campaign that does not include publications like ours is insufficient and is a dereliction of the government’s duty to communities at this time.
The government ad campaigning is subsidising billionaires and tax avoiders, bypassing ICNN members
This is why we are calling on your support to demand urgent action from the government to support organisations like ours and give us an equal share of its public health advertising spend.
We need this so that we can continue to bring you the valued and trusted news you have come to expect from us and rely on.
Please share this article with family and friends and on social media using the hashtag: #saveindependentnews.
You might also consider becoming an Inside Croydon supporter. For less than the price of a pint each month, you can join our merry band of patrons and, once this emergency is all over, enjoy a range of benefits including money-off offers, competitions and special guided tours.
The details of how to sign up are below…
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or what to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC London News
- Inside Croydon named Journalist of the Year at 2018 Anna Kennedy Online Autism Heroes Awards
- ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: For three consecutive years, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Inside Croydon has been the source for award-winning nominations in Private Eye magazine’s annual celebration of civic cock-ups
- Inside Croydon had 1.6million pages viewed by 721,000 unique visitors in 2019
The payments for these ads are just a bribe to keep Murdoch, the Barclay brothers, the Lebedevs, Rothermere, Dacre and Dirty Desmond from attacking the Tories for doing a terrible job about tackling the virus.
Do they need to be bribed for that?
PS. Dacre was “retired” about a year ago…