Paper trail

So my local paper, the East London Advertiser, which I don't think I've ever bought, has won the "Local Paper of the Year Award".

"Ooh," you might say.  "It must be a really, really, really good paper."

"I can't comment on that," I would reply.  "Because I don't think I've ever bought it."

Then I would ask you to think about something... who votes for this award?  Presumably it's either a general public phone-in, or some sort of panel made up of a representative population.

The thing about local papers - and stop me if I'm stating the bleeding obvious - is that they're only available in the local vicinity.  So someone from Tower Hamlets is hardly going to vote for the Peterborough Post or the Loughborough Echo as the local paper of the year.  Because they'll never have read it.

(And also, quite possibly, because the Loughborough Echo only contains stories with headlines like, "Potential bus stop move causes furore", "Man finds moth in garden" and "Youth tried to hit pigeon with stone".  As an aside, growing up in Loughborough, the paper once reviewed a school play I was in.  It only ran for three nights, and the run was well and truly over by the time the paper was published.  The paper gave the play the worst review I've ever seen of any play, ever. It contained the words "dull", "pompous" and "pathetic".  Really, what's the point?  Yes, the play was a bit poo, but it was a bunch of 16 year-old school kids, directed by a bunch of teachers.  Tickets were £4 and the money went to charity.  It wasn't as if they were going to stop anyone wasting their money buying tickets, as the play had finished by the time the review came out.  I'm still angrier about this than I should be.  Especially as I was the only cast member not mentioned by name.  Though perhaps I should be grateful for that.)

So yes, I don't see how any town can win the Best Local Paper award.  I think that was my point.  It might have got lost somewhere.