Thursday, January 12, 2017

With the Free Press, Someone is Always Paying

Our local free newspaper, The Euro Weekly News (Almería edition), lives from its advertisers. Evidently. It's not a pay-for newspaper with some responsibility to its readership.  Thus, its content can sometimes be somewhat partisan, taking the view, above all, of its clients.
Such an example is a recent one-sided report about Mojácar's plans for the beach-bars, which failed to mention the spirited opposition from the general public for the project to extend the beach-promenade at the cost of a number of popular and historic beach bars.
But then, the Town Hall is an enthusiastic advertiser both here and on the local radio (Spectrum). These media live from advertising, not from good-will  (check Actualidad Almanzora for better reportage - a medium, incidently, that the Mojácar town hall refuses to consider for either news or advertising).
At the same time, other stories at the Euro Weekly are pushed aside. There was no mention of FITUR in this week's paper (the Golden Indalo?), nor of the sad anniversary of Helen and Len Prior, now living in their garage in Vera for nine years (since January 9th 2008) nor indeed of the recent death of Alan Bishop, one of the founders of The Entertainer (the precursor of the EWN).
The free-sheet gives some useful club and commercial information - but is it enough for one's news-feed?

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