Reply Posted: (Wednesday 26th November 2008 ) By - Sean McGonigle (Unregistered User)

The Advertiser closing

Jenny, I am still around and more than happy to clarify what is happening with the Advertiser. The paper is still being produced and should be distributed as normal although I know that there are always problems in some parts of East Manchester in receiving the paper every week.The paper is no longer funded by New East Manchester. We did fund it for the first three years until 2005, the original intention was to subsidise it for 5 years but they secured enough advertising after 3 years to be able to be self financing - this was always the aim behind setting it up.
In terms of their move there are two reasons. They were always going to have to move from Beswick precinct as the current shop is due to demolished to make way for the new high school. They struggled to find affordable alternative premises which takes us to the second reason. Free papers such as the Advertiser can only survive on the adverising revenue they secure and there are two main sources of this - from estate agents selling houses and for job vacancy adverts. As you will all know the credit crunch and knock on economic conditions have brought the housing market to a halt and will have a similar impact on employment. This has massively reduced the paer's income and to save costs they have moved in with their sister paper. I know there has been some reorganisation but I'm not aware that they have made anyone redundant. I share your views about the importance of the Advertiser and we will continue to work with them to help them through the difficult times they are going through. I hope this clarifies things.