GLOBAL MEDIA CRISIS HITS HOME

Living in this part of the world it's easy to feel disconnected from the carnage that's happening within the media industry elsewhere. Stories about newspapers closing and magazines moving online sometimes seem a world away from everyday life in Thailand.
Overnight those stories became all too real with the news that one small, almost insignificant weekly newspaper in central southern English will lose its editorial presence in the town in serves. Editorial staff at The Wokingham Times will move to work from sister publication the Reading Evening Post, which itself will move from being a five-night-a-week newspaper to publishing just twice. Some editorial jobs will be lost, many of which will probably be former colleagues and friends.
I spent the best part of seven years at The Wokingham Times. The newspaper won the Newspaper Society's 'Weekly Newspaper of the Year' award in 2004 and has been the training ground for reporters and photographers that are now working on regional and national newspapers, global magazines, television and radio. But circulation has dropped drastically in the last few years and is now less than 6,000 copies per week - down from more than 13,000 when I first joined in 1995.
With my business hat on I can understand why the decision has been made, but the fact is that the town will lose an essential part of its community when the office closes. Reporters and photographers cannot cover their patch remotely from nine miles down the road in Reading, and that will ultimately have a negative impact on what remains of the brand.
I guess the good thing is that the newspaper will live on, but I sincerely hope this isn't the beginning of the end for The Wokingham Times.