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| The north-east: not the new Detroit. But poorly served by the national media | The north-east: not the new Detroit. But poorly served by the national media |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| By the time I became aware of the furore surrounding Andy Beckett’s piece about the troubles facing the north-east of England, the storm of controversy was already a-swirl. | By the time I became aware of the furore surrounding Andy Beckett’s piece about the troubles facing the north-east of England, the storm of controversy was already a-swirl. |
| I'd missed the first cracks of thunder, having been holed up on a hen weekend, groggily unaware that Weekend magazine had run a 3,500-word feature asking if the north-east was the "next Detroit". | I'd missed the first cracks of thunder, having been holed up on a hen weekend, groggily unaware that Weekend magazine had run a 3,500-word feature asking if the north-east was the "next Detroit". |
| But by the time I logged on to Twitter on Sunday morning, the winds of indignation were howling. A petition had been set up urging Beckett to return to the region and write “a more balanced and educated piece”. In the Newcastle Journal, one of Beckett’s interviewees, Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah, expressed her disappointment at what she called a “patronising and inaccurate reflection on the region”, complaining he had left out all of the positive things she’d said. | But by the time I logged on to Twitter on Sunday morning, the winds of indignation were howling. A petition had been set up urging Beckett to return to the region and write “a more balanced and educated piece”. In the Newcastle Journal, one of Beckett’s interviewees, Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah, expressed her disappointment at what she called a “patronising and inaccurate reflection on the region”, complaining he had left out all of the positive things she’d said. |
| Edward Twiddy, outgoing director of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, also weighed in after being quoted in the article, saying that the piece failed to acknowledge that "once the cost of living is taken into account, average salaries in the North East are worth £3,000 more each year than those of people who have to deal with the daily pollution and congestion of London." | Edward Twiddy, outgoing director of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, also weighed in after being quoted in the article, saying that the piece failed to acknowledge that "once the cost of living is taken into account, average salaries in the North East are worth £3,000 more each year than those of people who have to deal with the daily pollution and congestion of London." |
| Paul Smith, a journalist from the north-east, produced a lively rebuttal; before long Buzzfeed had followed suit. By Monday lunchtime the original piece had been viewed 155,000 times and prompted more than 1,000 comments. | Paul Smith, a journalist from the north-east, produced a lively rebuttal; before long Buzzfeed had followed suit. By Monday lunchtime the original piece had been viewed 155,000 times and prompted more than 1,000 comments. |
| Despite being the Guardian's northern editor – the job title a hangover from those honeyed days when we had an army of reporters in the north who needed marshalling – I am not consulted every time a colleague enters my territory. Nor would I expect to get the heads-up. The more journalists who head north, the better, as far as I'm concerned. Permanently, ideally – I really do think the BBC's centre of gravity has changed for the better following the move to Salford. But you take what you can get. | Despite being the Guardian's northern editor – the job title a hangover from those honeyed days when we had an army of reporters in the north who needed marshalling – I am not consulted every time a colleague enters my territory. Nor would I expect to get the heads-up. The more journalists who head north, the better, as far as I'm concerned. Permanently, ideally – I really do think the BBC's centre of gravity has changed for the better following the move to Salford. But you take what you can get. |
| I often suspect that many London-based journalists know Paris or New York better than they do any of our northern cities, let alone the towns and villages. So I'm always delighted to see that a comrade has been up Blencathra (or at least to the pub at the bottom), enjoyed a restaurant in York or investigated how a comprehensive in a tough part of inner city Manchester has got so many sixth formers into Oxbridge. | |
| The sad truth is that, as the last staff reporter the Guardian has left in the north of England, there is no way I can do the region justice by myself. Thanks to our risible cross country rail links, it takes me at least three hours reach much of the north-east. And, with so much to cover on my doorstep in Manchester and over the Pennines in Yorkshire, my ventures into Tyneside, Teesside and beyond are all too rare. | The sad truth is that, as the last staff reporter the Guardian has left in the north of England, there is no way I can do the region justice by myself. Thanks to our risible cross country rail links, it takes me at least three hours reach much of the north-east. And, with so much to cover on my doorstep in Manchester and over the Pennines in Yorkshire, my ventures into Tyneside, Teesside and beyond are all too rare. |
| The Guardian isn't alone in this regard. The Telegraph has no northern correspondent any more; neither does the Times. The newdesk at the Financial Times, lucky so-and-sos, can count on two experienced northern corrs. The tabloids have more. But too much of the too little 'serious' journalism covering the north is written by expats on flying visits or star writers making sweeping generalisations on whistlestop trips. See for example AA Gill's demolition of Grimsby last year, in which the Sunday Times restaurant critic wrote off the seaport as "a dull litany of deprivation", prompting local MP Austin Mitchell to say: "George Orwell came north to express support for the poor and the downtrodden. Now journalists come north to laugh at us." | |
| Speaking to Newcastle council's leader, Nick Forbes, on Monday morning, it was clear that part of the reason Beckett's piece stung so badly was because the north-east is so poorly served by much of the national media. "It's a symptom of the centralisation of the national media that there's little serious regional reporting from any of the print newspapers," he said. | Speaking to Newcastle council's leader, Nick Forbes, on Monday morning, it was clear that part of the reason Beckett's piece stung so badly was because the north-east is so poorly served by much of the national media. "It's a symptom of the centralisation of the national media that there's little serious regional reporting from any of the print newspapers," he said. |
| Yet Beckett's reporting was serious. He spent six to seven weeks working on the piece and visited the north-east three times during his research. It was hardly his maiden voyage either. In the past he's written in depth on the Angel of the North, visited South Shields with David Miliband and used the north-east as a detailed case study when discussing whether culture can regenerate a city. | |
| But to Forbes, the fact Beckett's latest was printed in the Guardian, founded in the north of England almost 200 years ago, only added to the insult. You could argue Forbes should buck up, having been so outspoken about the damage the cuts were going to cause to his city. But it's hard to counter his point that not enough national journalists take the time to really understand what's going on in his patch. | |
| Former Guardian journalist Ian Wylie recently set up Northern Correspondent, a new magazine celebrating serious, New Yorker-style long form journalism in the north-east. He said on Monday that while he didn't think there was a conspiracy against the regions, most national news organisations don’t have the resources or appetite to cover both global and local news in depth. "Cuts in the numbers of journalists and the production | Former Guardian journalist Ian Wylie recently set up Northern Correspondent, a new magazine celebrating serious, New Yorker-style long form journalism in the north-east. He said on Monday that while he didn't think there was a conspiracy against the regions, most national news organisations don’t have the resources or appetite to cover both global and local news in depth. "Cuts in the numbers of journalists and the production |
| of local newspapers, added to our growing use of social media, means | of local newspapers, added to our growing use of social media, means |
| that we’re more likely to know what’s going on in New Zealand | that we’re more likely to know what’s going on in New Zealand |
| than in Newcastle," said Wylie. | than in Newcastle," said Wylie. |
| Would Beckett's piece have been better received if he lived and worked in the north-east? Possibly. Very probably, if the Guardian wrote more positively more frequently about the region in general, highlighting the positive as well as the negative, looking beyond the grizzly crimes or woeful football. We do sometimes - last month we ran a story about Atom, the UK's first digital only bank which is currently being developed near Newcastle (and where Twiddy will soon set up shop). And waiting in the wings is a great piece by Dominic Smith, a freelancer from Middlesbrough, about Sunderland's start-up tech scene. But we could do more. | |
| Yet those shouting on Twitter are wrong to accuse Beckett of lazy journalism. Having spoken to him on Monday morning, he explained that he went north-east with no "agenda". He hadn't been dispatched to prove the hypothesis that the north-east was on course to become a basket case like Detroit, which famously declared bankruptcy in 2013. The Detroit comparison was made independently by three or four of his interviewees, unprompted. He never broached the subject. And he didn't write the headline. | Yet those shouting on Twitter are wrong to accuse Beckett of lazy journalism. Having spoken to him on Monday morning, he explained that he went north-east with no "agenda". He hadn't been dispatched to prove the hypothesis that the north-east was on course to become a basket case like Detroit, which famously declared bankruptcy in 2013. The Detroit comparison was made independently by three or four of his interviewees, unprompted. He never broached the subject. And he didn't write the headline. |
| His original draft was 40% longer. Production issues at the last minute meant the piece took a hefty cut, taking with it observations of some of the more positive developments in the region. | His original draft was 40% longer. Production issues at the last minute meant the piece took a hefty cut, taking with it observations of some of the more positive developments in the region. |
| It was not intended to be a hatchet job. The idea was to see how the region was faring in the face of some of the harshest government cuts in the country, particularly how it was coping without the same political influence it enjoyed under the Labour era, when key cabinet members - and Tony Blair - had seats in the region. | It was not intended to be a hatchet job. The idea was to see how the region was faring in the face of some of the harshest government cuts in the country, particularly how it was coping without the same political influence it enjoyed under the Labour era, when key cabinet members - and Tony Blair - had seats in the region. |
| One local response to Beckett's piece has been the Journal inviting readers to help them come up with 100 Reasons Why It's Great In the North. I'm sure the results will make cheering reading. But they will not cancel out the worrying facts Beckett presented in his story which even the noisiest haters have had to accept. He could could have spent six pages waxing lyrical about the north-east's obvious charms - the beaches of Northumberland, the funicular "lift" from the beach to the promenade at Saltburn-by-the-Sea, the terrific cycling around the northern Pennines. Not to mention the people, the food, the humour, the nightlife. But that was not his brief. | One local response to Beckett's piece has been the Journal inviting readers to help them come up with 100 Reasons Why It's Great In the North. I'm sure the results will make cheering reading. But they will not cancel out the worrying facts Beckett presented in his story which even the noisiest haters have had to accept. He could could have spent six pages waxing lyrical about the north-east's obvious charms - the beaches of Northumberland, the funicular "lift" from the beach to the promenade at Saltburn-by-the-Sea, the terrific cycling around the northern Pennines. Not to mention the people, the food, the humour, the nightlife. But that was not his brief. |