JimOldfield
It sounds, and is, a cliché, but Jim Oldfield (left), editor of the Rossington Community Newsletter and six other titles, is absolutely adamant and has told me twice (once at the Paul Foot Awards, and once now, on the telephone), that he never ever predicted himself in the final shortlist for the country's highest profile investigative journalism award, when he arrived with just a shoebox to take the helm at a a few small-scale newsletters near Doncaster.

"When I arrived here, they gave me a cardboard box, with a ruler and some stationery in it, and said we haven't got an office for you yet," he says.

Oldfield's own background is an interesting one: from 1974 to the mid-90s, he was a local reporter, then the tabloids' man in the north, working for the Sun and the Mirror. Then he had enough, and for a number of reasons, took a step out of newspaper land.

But in April 2004, the Johnston Press opportunity came up and since then he has been at the heart of making some extremely localised, village newsletters a fundamental part of the community, with a campaigning and investigative agenda.

His most famous story to date is the one which made him a Paul Foot runner-up: stories involving an eco-town development proposal, which would see five new housing 'hubs' built to the south and west of Rossington.

The newsletters have grown from four to seven in number since Oldfield took up his post, but he has only acquired one extra team member, a trainee reporter, Hayley Paterson, to his original team of two part-time reporters, Sally Burton and Emma Roots.

The process
Administration and production is managed by Johnston Press in the office the Community Newsletters team now shares with the publisher's other titles in the region.

But, says Oldfield, his team often takes its own photographs, makes graphics and changes lay-out, as well as producing and subbing copy.

He explains how in three out of four weeks of the month they produce 'two complete papers with different splashes, [doing] different spreads, designing, proofing, off-stoning'.

"I do all the re-formatting and re-numbering of pages," he adds.

Local needs
Demand from the community for hyperlocal print content is high: "To this day, other areas say 'can't we have a newsletter?'", says Oldfield.

These newsletters were all to contain their own news, there was 'never a remit to fill with them with any pap', he adds.

"At first I think what was envisaged was little school stories," explains Oldfield. Instead the team has established truly hyperlocal publications that fill a public thirst for information and local action.

This is the result of getting to small meetings and events, says Oldfield, though he admits that with seven areas to cover they're stretched and can end up with meeting clashes.

"If you're going to take this hyperlocal approach, you're going to have to dig out stories and to get yourself on the ground and get yourself out in the community. I don't think a lot of newspapers now have the sort of staff, or the time to be able to do this," he says.

Companion websites for the newsletters are yet to be launched - at the moment they have pages on the Doncaster Free Press site - but when they are, Oldfield will take control of them too.

While excited by web possibilities, he is concerned about losing time for what they're good at: newsgathering using 'on-the-ground' methods that he says have been discarded by many reporters.

"I think local news skims the surface a bit now. We can't afford to skim the surface - we wouldn't have a story if we only skimmed the surface, so we're right in there, under the skin."

The campaigns
A local multi-millionaire is currently trying to redevelop Armthorpe, says Oldfield, and after rooting about at local parish council meetings and voicing the team's own concerns, the newsletter ran the graphic and headline: 'Armo-Geddon'.

Villagers called in demanding the logo and then 'they'd all had t-shirts printed and they start campaigning outside shops, in the street' against the development, he says.

The Rossington eco-town story [latest update here], he says, was the direct result of attending a local planning meeting.

"This group sprang up and proposed an eco-town: I mean, we hadn't heard of them and I don't think anyone else had at this stage. It wasn't immediately apparent that government was touting round [this idea] everywhere," he says, explaining 'The Scoop'.

"We ran on it and continued to run with it, and were amazed that for months after that no-one else followed up on it. We were just ploughing our own field for quite a long time.

"We really are the voice and they [the readers] really do trust us," he says, adding that this is key to establishing yourself in a hyperlocal news environment.

But, the Paul Foot Award nominee, like everyone else, doesn't know if popularity will keep them afloat. Oldfield understands that a supportive readership does not make their jobs immune to advertising revenue declines, making the recent Johnston Press reports especially worrying.

For now though, that's not Oldfield's main concern. He has plenty more campaigns and seven new websites to finish launching.
 

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