Fitzrovia News
Encyclopedia
The Fitzrovia News is a free community newspaper
produced entirely by volunteers living and working in Fitzrovia
, London
, United Kingdom
. It is an example of what has been called hyperlocal media or community journalism
. It is notable because it is "one of the country's oldest community newspapers".
The Fitzrovia News was originally called The Tower and was started by a group of community activists in April 1973 in response to threats to their neighbourhood from building developers and the loss of housing. The name Tower was a reference to the Post Office Tower now the BT Tower
which stands near the geographic heart of the neighbourhood
. The Tower was produced from the flat of Judith Thomas a local resident. The paper was renamed Fitzrovia News in 1980 when it was produced by the Fitzrovia Community Newspaper Group from the recently established Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre.
The paper is printed in a tabloid format four times a year and distributed by volunteers to all residents in the London neighbourhood of Fitzrovia. Like many hyperlocal media the Fitzrovia News makes extensive use of freely available digital media: blog
software Wordpress
and social media
Twitter
, Facebook
; location-based social-networking Foursquare; and visual media Flickr
and YouTube
.
Fitzrovia News has taken a critical stance on many issues affecting Fitzrovia and the people who live and work there. In February 2011 it carried two articles supporting the occupation by the Really Free School of a house in Fitzroy Square owned by film-maker Guy Richie and criticised the mainstream media for inaccurate reporting of the neighbourhood.
The newspaper is led by editor Mike Pentelow, an author and former trade union journalist; and has featured illustrations by the cartoonist Kipper Williams and the woodcuts of Clifford Harper
.
Fitzrovia News is a non-profit paper supported by the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association (registered charity no. 1111649) and by advertising from local businesses and services, and by public donations.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
produced entirely by volunteers living and working in Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia is a neighbourhood in central London, near London's West End lying partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the City of Westminster ; and situated between Marylebone and Bloomsbury and north of Soho. It is characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail,...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It is an example of what has been called hyperlocal media or community journalism
Community journalism
Community journalism is locally oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news....
. It is notable because it is "one of the country's oldest community newspapers".
The Fitzrovia News was originally called The Tower and was started by a group of community activists in April 1973 in response to threats to their neighbourhood from building developers and the loss of housing. The name Tower was a reference to the Post Office Tower now the BT Tower
BT Tower
The BT Tower is a tall cylindrical building in London, United Kingdom, located at 60 Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia W1T 4JZ, London Borough of Camden. It has been previously known as the Post Office Tower, the London Telecom Tower and the British Telecom Tower. The main structure is tall, with a...
which stands near the geographic heart of the neighbourhood
Neighbourhood
A neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition...
. The Tower was produced from the flat of Judith Thomas a local resident. The paper was renamed Fitzrovia News in 1980 when it was produced by the Fitzrovia Community Newspaper Group from the recently established Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre.
The paper is printed in a tabloid format four times a year and distributed by volunteers to all residents in the London neighbourhood of Fitzrovia. Like many hyperlocal media the Fitzrovia News makes extensive use of freely available digital media: blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
software Wordpress
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1...
and social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
; location-based social-networking Foursquare; and visual media Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
and YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
Fitzrovia News has taken a critical stance on many issues affecting Fitzrovia and the people who live and work there. In February 2011 it carried two articles supporting the occupation by the Really Free School of a house in Fitzroy Square owned by film-maker Guy Richie and criticised the mainstream media for inaccurate reporting of the neighbourhood.
The newspaper is led by editor Mike Pentelow, an author and former trade union journalist; and has featured illustrations by the cartoonist Kipper Williams and the woodcuts of Clifford Harper
Clifford Harper
Clifford Harper is an illustrator and militant anarchist. He was born in Chiswick, West London on the 13th of July 1949. His father was a postman and his mother a cook. Expelled from school at 13 and placed on 2 years probation at 14, he then worked in a series of "menial jobs" before 'turning on,...
.
Fitzrovia News is a non-profit paper supported by the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association (registered charity no. 1111649) and by advertising from local businesses and services, and by public donations.