For me this has been a summer of shocks and this week the biggest shock of all came in the form of our local newspaper The Oldham Evening Chronicle being placed in administration because of dwindling circulation and ever decreasing advertising revenus which made its business position untenable.
The Oldham Evening Chronicle for many of the towns older folks was the first stop to find out what was happening in the town and more importantly it was a place that made our local politicians and council officers accountable for the decisions they make and that is an important function of any media institution.
Now many people will blame the introduction of the internet, free news sites and social media for the decline in readership, but thats not the only reason.
More importantly the readership have less time to spend consuming the stories and articles that newspapers deliver. We have arrived at a population of headline readers. People who are intrigued by a headline then will want a very short paragraph or two outlining the detail of the item and that is not viable when you have to fill column inches in a daily newspaper.
So after 160 years the paper has finally shut its doors and the town will be a lot worse off for it’s passing. I hope that the dedicated staff who lost their jobs soon find a new home for there skills but somehow it wont be the same, we will loose all that local knowledge and expertise which means that something very special has now been lost forever.
John D Eccles 
It really is a shame John. Newspapers like this are institutions and a real part of the local community. I’m sure many people will mourn it as the passing of a friend. Here’s hoping the M.E.N. doesn’t have similar problems, local voices are getting less and less.
Hugs
It is sad when something so dear is lost. And the tradition of reading newspapers is falling to the wayside, everywhere.
In our part of rural France we have no local papers, just a quarterly newsletter issued by the town hall. It’s sad when a local institution has to close, but maybe there could be some way of banding together with other communities to share the audience? Or creating an online version (heaven forbid, I can hear you saying!), but at least that would still provide a job or two and keep people informed on the latest community happenings.