By Catalina Albeanu and Carolina Are
“Modern readers only care about the story, not about the platform”, says Gaz Corfield, creator of wildly successful local news site The West Londoner, which received over 1m hits in 24 hours during the London riots last summer.
According to Corfield some 50 per cent of those readers accessed it through a mobile device. He started The West Londoner because the digital offering in West London is “pitiful”.He complains that most local titles are in print, with websites only as a secondary promotion tool.
Corfield saw a gap in the market for fast, accurate and local online news. “It’s gossip, basically; people are naturally inquisitive and like to know what’s happening round their local area”, he says. For example, nowadays the most popular West Londoner stories are about the fate of rioters and council malpractice.
Gaz Corfield, founder of The West Londoner. Photo from wannabehacks.co.uk
For Corfield, mobile is the future for local news. But he says he would also like to save up and create a hyperlocal print title available via subscription. The big stumbling block is finding a way to make it pay: “Once somebody comes up with a funding model that works, I think the other problems will solve themselves.”
Despite the success of the West Londoner, Corfield has been unable to find a job in journalism – and is currently working as a social media consultant.
On the streets of Hammersmith, West Londoners have differing views about how they want local news. Richard Emmott, 44, a management consultant from Fulham, says: “I think it depends on the generation. A lot of my friends certainly use smartphones and iPads nowadays for local searches.”
A 64-year-old housewife from Hammersmith who did not want to be named says: “I get my local news from the television. I don’t use any websites or the internet. I suppose other people read the Hammersmith and Fulham newspaper.”
But according to Alex Boakye, 29, a WHSmith employee in Kings Mall, Hammersmith,“local newspapers are still the main means of gathering local information”.
Listen to our interview with Alex Boakye here or by using the widget below:
Alex Boakye holding the Ealing & Acton Gazette.
Photos by Catalina Albeanu and Carolina Are unless otherwise specified.
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