Human cost of new technology, says former Southport Champion editor

Human cost of new technology, says former Champion editor

My deepest and sincere sympathies to the staff (including of course their army of loyal distributors) of The Southport Champion which has sadly gone into liquidation, writes Martin Hovden.

As editor of the Southport/Formby/Maghull Champion from 1995-2009, I know how hard the news will have hit their dedicated and conscientious staff, in all departments.

The Champion was very much a family company, with all its family members pulling together to produce an excellent, news-packed edition each week. The staff deserve full praise for the superb way they served their local communities for the past 28 years with great passion and enthusiasm.

I have so may great, happy and fond memories of working for The Champion - including a few disagreements with the directors which seem so petty now - but I never doubted the determination of everyone there to be the voice of its community, to be the messenger of good - and yes, bad news, to offer help and support to its readers, to provide an excellent platform for its advertisers - to be Southport's champion.

I was made redundant from the Champion in 2009, a year after the stock market crash, so I know how the staff are feeling. It just knocks you for six, you feel shell-shocked, your life has suddenly been turned upside down. But you do survive, with the much-appreciated support of family and friends.

What's happened to The Champion is happening all over the UK. Newspapers are closing every week as more and more people turn to online news websites. The subsequent loss of advertising revenue, combined with the huge increase in the cost of newsprint (the paper a newspaper is printed on), and the current devastating cost of living crisis have caused a situation where it just becomes too expensive to publish a weekly newspaper.

The Champion staff can hold their heads up high. They went down fighting.

Goodbye, old friend.