BRING BACK THE TONBRIDGE FREE PRESS!...

I've just been exchanging views with a local resident outside Bronsdon's newsagents (as one is supposed to do in a proper community) about whether the Courier is doing Tonbridge a disservice by crapping all over its Community columnists one week and then closing down its local office on the High Street the next. The view which seems to be gathering momentum (see some of the comments below) is that Tonbridge needs its own dedicated newspaper. BRING BACK THE TONBRIDGE FREE PRESS! I hear you all cry as one. Would that it were that simple. Firstly our Tunbridge Wells-centric friends, the Courier Group, own the now dormant title, secondly who would have the will? and more importantly the resources to start it up again? Actually probably plenty of people have the will, but would they have, or be able to gather the expertise? Then there's blogging; it costs me around £8 a month to keep this site up. How much for even a modest newspaper? The newspaper groups, make no mistake about it, are in a state of confusion over the internet. They don't really know what to do or where to go with it. Should it be free content, and risk losing a potentially huge source of revenue, or should it be the paid for subscribers route at the risk of a low, but potential more valueable, readership. That's why there is such a hotch potch of styles out there. Compare this with the tried and tested papers where they are all pretty much of a muchness in each section, be they red tops, mid market or qualities, they all copy each other. The answer my friends is not blowing in the wind, no but it is starring us all in the face. Expand TonbridgeBlog! I hear one or two of you cry half heartedly. Yes we could; it would mean getting some staff, technical expertise, a team of writers/photographers. What do you mean "and a new editor!" It could be done and would be a damned sight cheaper than re-launching a paper. Would it carry advertising though? now there's a dilema. Maybe Tonbridge Free Press online only edition. There you go Courier there's a free bit of advice for you, only get someone else in to do it, or you'll only cock it up! There are possbilities out there but I'm not sure that the traditional route is viable any longer. Withing about 30 years we'll have a complete popuation who are no at all daunted by computers and internet shpping, who are so totally used to it that using it is second nature. What chance have weekly newspapers got then against the much cheaper and much more immediate powers of the interactive web log?...