Guardian Local blogs to be closed

The Guardian Local project is to be closed down, the newspaper has announced.

Launched a year ago, it consists of three blogs which cover Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh, with a focus on community news.

The Guardian called it an “experiment in new models of local journalism”, to see whether such a scheme would work editorially or financially.

It would seem that while the blogs were very popular with the local population, the financial issue was a sticking point, as the Guardian notes that “the project is not sustainable in its present form”.

That means all three blogs will be wound down over the next month, and the Local project will be no more. The newspaper insists, however, that it will integrate community topics into its main website “wherever possible”. Although clearly, it’s not going to be possible to cover local issues with the same sort of accessibility and depth the blogs did.

There are a lot of strong feelings voiced in the comments thread on the Guardian’s piece announcing the closure, and a lot of people who will miss the coverage.

One poster wrote: “Closing the Beat Blogs isn’t a shame – it’s a crime. John Barron at the Leeds Guardian has championed so many causes and helped to make Leeds standout again. The other local media just doesn’t ‘get’ it and is still floating around in the pre-digital age.”

Another commenter wonders if it would be possible for the bloggers to continue their local coverage minus the newspaper’s support. It would certainly seem there’s enough support from the folks who live in those three cities.