Modern History Group Hears About Changes In Local Media

Published on: 26 Feb, 2013
Updated on: 26 Feb, 2013

The Guildford Dragon News’s Martin Giles and David Rose gave a talk titled The Changing Face of Local Media to members of the Modern History Group at Guildford Institute today (Tuesday, February 26).

Tracing the history of local newspapers in Guildford from the mid-19th century, David Rose gave an insight into a number of newspapers that have circulated in the town. The oldest still in existence is the Surrey Times, first published in 1855. The Surrey Advertiser did not come about until 1864.

For many years the Times and the Advertiser were rivals, with other publications also being circulated, such as the Surrey Weekly Press and the Guildford Outlook magazine.

David spoke about the methods of production and printing of these titles – from the days of hot metal printing, through to the advent of the computer age. He also showed examples from his collection of some notable editions; such as the supplement issued by the Surrey Times after the Great Storm of 1906, the Advertiser’s coverage of the floods of 1968, the IRA pub bombings of 1974, and the Great Storm of 1987.

He also showed a copy of one of the special editions of the Advertiser issued in 1959 during a printer’s strike and an experimental evening paper it issued in 1968 ahead of the Surrey Daily Advertiser, that ran from 1973 until 1979.

His part of the afternoon talk culminated with recalling the ceasing of the printing of the Advertiser in Guildford in 1992, and the newspaper’s move from Martyr Road to Stoke Mill in 1999. David worked at the Advertiser for many years, rising to the position of chief sub-editor, from which he quit in 2011.

Now he is a main contributor to The Guildford Dragon News on-line newspaper that Martin Giles and he set up last year.

Martin, who is the publisher of the news website, then took over for the second part of the talk. His explained how The Guildford Dragon News website came about. Going ‘live’ onto the site using an internet connection he showed how it works and how it is being regularly updated with news, features and photos.

The two strongly believe that the future of local news reporting will be focused on the internet, as well, of course, as other media such as local TV, radio and the increasing phenomena of social media.

More and more Guildfordians are now wanting to hear their local news as soon as possible after it has happened – and Martin and David are there helping to fulfil that need.