British journalist and author Alistair Coleman has been running the blog for nearly two decades now.
“It’s a very specific thing, if you’re angry at something like dog poo on your street or your bus has been axed, you go out to your local press and they send a photographer and you point at the thing that’s made you angry and it’s those photos are what we want,” he said in a Q&A.
“People get furious about tiny little things in their life and it’s brilliant. So many people do it.”
Coleman himself has never been in local journalism.
“I was a technician to start with and my technician role sort of slid slightly into writing about technology and then the technician role disappeared so I just became a journalist and one thing led to another and I’m now a North Korea analyst and a Fake News analyst,” he explained.
“It’s a very weird career path I’ve taken.”
However, Coleman has become very passionate about local journalism while he has been working on this blog. “Not just in the UK but they also have challenges elsewhere in the world,” he said.
“Now that one of the major sources of news is the internet, newspapers find it difficult to monetize the news on the internet, so they’re losing money — just because people don’t want to pay for news. However, I’m all for anything that gets people reading their local newspaper again, connecting with their local communities again — and I’ve accidentally started people doing that again,” Coleman added.
Coleman has even released a book on ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers.’ Packed with the best that regional journalism can offer, there are chapters on antisocial behavior, transport hell, and fast-food nightmares.
One of the author’s favorite stories featured in the book is about a self-styled Mrs Angry on EU referendum day, but there are so many that stand out.
“Another favourite ... was some bloke that was pulled away from a funeral because there was a squirrel that set fire to his garage. The picture that came with it was an image aiming his shotgun up in the air, ‘Right squirrel, I’m going to come and get you.’ That was marvellous. It was a marvellous little story because it’s one man’s impotent fury but you do really feel sorry for him.”
“People go to their local paper about things that make them angry, things that are weird and they go viral from there. Local newspapers are the backbone of journalism,” Coleman added.
“It’s a shame, it’s such a shame many are cut to the bone. It’s a shame they can’t afford to have staffed photographers anymore because they are the people that make the British press what it is. I’m absolutely passionate about this.”
