One clock that's still ticking fast: Morning Star Online to go free in 2009

by RICHARD BAGLEY

TIME STANDS STILL: The newsroom clockface.

THE newsroom clock stopped dead on that dreadful night in July as fire ripped through the Morning Star newsroom.

But the clock never stopped ticking for one man at the Star - webmaster Carl Worswick.

For the new year marks a landmark date in the paper's history. It's then that Morning Star Online's subscription barrier will be torn down and the whole of the newspaper will be available for free, bringing Britain's daily paper of the left to a potential audience of millions.

Amid the chaos, confusion and a fleeting existence spent hopping from one temporary office to another, Worswick's been working overtime to ensure that our website has continued to fly the flag of the people's paper online.

As others grappled with the day-to-day stresses of life on the road, he's continued to beaver away on plans for our internet presence that will put this paper firmly on a par with any other news outlet. The fire has interrupted the timetable, but things are now back on track.

Although visitors to the site may be unaware of the changes afoot, big things have been happening behind the scenes, with software upgrades and intense discussion on the best way to make Morning Star Online a resource that the labour movement and wider left can be proud of.

We know that it's not going to be quick or easy - after all, we are, as always, light on resources. But, while we may be short of cash, we're big on spirit and determined to get things right.

The Morning Star webmaster's job has been frustrating at times in the years since the site's 2004 launch. "The website's largely remained static for four years. It's been one problem after another," says Worswick (right), who has had to get his head around complex software and technical problems during his time in the hot seat.

"But now things are finally moving. We're on the final stage of the software upgrade. Once that's done, there really isn't that much holding us back other than time."

And the unseen upgrade work, which is being completed with the help of an industrious friend in the IT industry, should open the door to a whole new era.

"For the first time ever, we are in the position to make some of our more exciting plans reality," explains Worswick.

"Ultimately, the site's got to be a forum for all left-wing people to debate. For that to happen, we need to make it more dynamic with blogs and multimedia, although that isn't going to happen overnight."

There was of course one natural fear about setting our online presence free - that the print circulation would suffer. But the paper's management decided that it was time to stand up and be counted.

Worswick backs their decision. "Everybody believes that the internet eats off the flesh of the print edition. But, by having it free and getting in more visitors, it will bring the Morning Star to new readers who may well pick up the paper next time they see it in the shops."

With the subscription-only model, "it feels like we're preaching to the converted," says the webmaster. "Trying to attract new readership is almost impossible when the rest of the web provides information free of charge - no-one can talk about our articles or generate interest in our articles."

There will nevertheless be a large financial gap to bridge. "We're going to largely rely on people's donations," says Worswick of a scheme to encourage existing subscribers to continue supporting the site for the benefit of other web users. "And we're hoping that progressive organisations will back the site via advertising packages." Other fundraising schemes include selling merchandise online and greater promotion of the print edition.

"There'll be a noticeable change in January, but it's more of an ongoing project," continues Worswick. And he hopes that Morning Star readers and supporters will play a key role in shaping the site.

"Because we're not like other newspapers, we need your help to make things happen."

The first essential step is to sign up to our mailing list (see top right) so that we can tell you about our plans.

After the launch of a new look in January, plans for spring 2009 include resources for readers and supporters groups and a development area where interested readers will be able to get actively involved in shaping the site and the paper's future.

So, as you raise a glass to bring in the new year, you'll have something else to toast too - a new online era for the people's daily miracle. The clock's ticking.

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A 21st century Star

Morning Star editor JOHN HAYLETT on the Star's road to recovery and big new plans.

I WISH that I had a tenner for every time that I'd heard a variation on the following comment over the past three months.

"Paper's looking brilliant, John. It must be great to be back to normal, is it?"

The only printable answer is that it would be, because the truth is that we only got the go-ahead to proceed with work on our burnt-out upper floor, where our editorial and circulation departments are normally situated, on Monday of last week.

Unfortunately, the wheels of the insurance industry grind exceedingly slow.

The fact that the paper has, after a couple of shaky days immediately after the fire on the morning of July 28, maintained its quality has been due to the determination of all staff not to allow standards to slip.

Since that time, while the circulation department has had to take up residence on makeshift desks in the administration area, journalists have worked either from home or, the vast majority, in our boardroom which has been converted into a makeshift news room.

It's unsatisfactory, it's crowded and it can be quite noisy, but staff have borne the inconvenience because the alternative would have been to interrupt the production of our daily miracle.

And, far from breaking production and letting our readers down, we are looking to improve the service that we provide.

Earlier this year, a small consortium of Morning Star supporters came to us to propose financing a project that would see extra pages - from 12 to 16 Monday to Friday and 20 instead of 16 on Saturday - and greater use of colour as part of our ongoing drive to increase daily readership.

This offer was gratefully accepted by the management committee of the People's Press Printing Society, the readers' co-operative society that owns the Morning Star.

Our original intention had been launch the new, improved Morning Star in early January, but the fire put paid to that, since we would have had nowhere to train the extra staff that we will need to take on.

Our launch date will now have to be put back until some time in spring, which will still be a squeeze, but we are determined to press on.

One word of warning. Please don't imagine that the investment by our supporters' consortium means that the Morning Star is awash with cash. The expansion project was very tightly costed. The finance is ring-fenced. We will still count on donations to our monthly £16,000 Fighting Fund to guarantee our paper's existence.

We know that a bigger paper is not necessarily a better paper - just take a look at some of the mammoth productions that weigh down newsagents' shelves - but we want to expand it for at least two reasons.

We believe that an enlarged Morning Star could offer more news, features, comment and analysis than ever before, enhancing our reputation as the daily paper of left.

And never was our unique daily paper needed more, with Socialist Campaign Group News ceasing publication and Tribune also going through a shaky time.

Anyone who buys our paper regularly will have been faced with sales staff saying: "Ooh, 60p for that. It's such a small paper."

This affects retailers' willingness to stock the Star and can also lead to small bundles being lost during deliveries. Size does matter.

In the final analysis, our aim is to sell more copies every day. This is vital for both political and financial reasons.

The Morning Star's reason to exist is twofold - to report on workers' struggles and encourage trade unionists that resistance to capitalist greed can be effective and to offer a critique of capitalism, making the arguments for a future based on peace and socialism.

How can we achieve those aims if our paper's existence is a closely guarded secret?

Expanding our circulation is crucial and we have traditionally counted on our comrades in the Communist Party and in Morning Star supporters' groups to spearhead the drive to puncture the curtain of ignorance that cloaks our existence.

But, in recent years, alongside a greater readiness of members and supporters of the Greens and various left groups to see the Morning Star as their paper, a number of trade unions have stepped forward to assist.

The Fire Brigades Union, rail union RMT and general union Unite all agreed to subscribe the maximum £20,000 shareholding in the PPPS and to delegate a member to our management committee.

They pay for Morning Stars for their conferences and trade union schools, sponsor Star events and merchandise and carry adverts for the paper in their journals. Unite also orders copies for its regional offices on a centralised basis and RMT has written to its branches encouraging them to buy shares in the PPPS.

And this backing is not restricted to unions with seats on the PPPS management committee.

Many unions express their approval of the informative, agitational, unifying and positive role that the Star plays in the labour movement in a variety of practical ways.

However, we cannot rely on the trade unions alone to build our paper's circulation. They have enough on their plate with the constant attacks on members' jobs and living standards, particularly at the present time.

Working people are crying out for answers to the current economic situation, following the international financial crisis and the realisation that, despite self-deluding rhetoric about ending boom and bust, capitalism has crisis embedded in its DNA.

There is greater political space for the world's only broad-left, English-language daily paper than for decades.

But it needs selling. We can't rely on big business to take pity on us and we can't afford the advertising splurges that the billionaire media deploys to win new readers.

One new form of advertising that we'll have from early January is our paper's website, which will be entirely free to access from then.

When the site started, we adopted the norm of charging for access, but things have changed. Access to most daily newspaper websites is now free, so we're doing the same.

Does this mean that we might lose daily paper sales? It could be the case, but we believe that a much higher profile on the web will let more people see what our paper is about and encourage them to buy it when they see it in the shops or on the streets.

We have got our traditional supporters, many of whom are reviving or starting Saturday pitches or special sales at labour movement events.

A brief note from Glasgow, for instance, mentioned good Star sales at a recent Scottish Cuba Solidarity event at the Comedy Club, a crowded public meeting in Clydebank organised by the local TUC and a pensioners' rally at the City Chambers.

Now that the nightmare of our paper arriving a day late in Scotland is over, at no small cost, it's time to take the Morning Star to the people who need it, even if they might not know that yet.

That can be via street sales or it can be as a result of personal approaches to friends and workmates, pointing out the unique role of the people's paper.

And no office of a trade union branch, peace organisation, pensioners' campaign, solidarity body or environmental group should feel complete without at least one copy of the Morning Star.

Another exciting new development - once again based on Scottish precedent - has been the establishment in Wales and various English regions of Morning Star campaign committees, rooted in the labour movement, to organise regular conferences and other events to spread the word and build the finances of our paper.

There's no need to wait until the expanded and improved Morning Star hits the streets.

Its welcome will be all the more satisfying if it already represents a more influential and stronger socialist voice for Britain's working people, around which all those sold short by new Labour can organise in unity to put war and privatisation behind us and opt for peace and socialism.

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And the buzz is rising...

RICHARD BAGLEY reports direct from the Star's temporary newsroom.

CRAMPED: The journalists' temporary quarters.

THE acrid stench of devastation has finally left the building. Last Monday, the soot-stained curtain to our upper floor was drawn back for the last time and the smell of fresh paint lingered in the air.

And though paint fumes might not be everybody's idea of a positive, for staff working in cramped conditions over the last three months, it came not a moment too soon.

In the aftermath of the fire, journalists were scattered across east London, hunched over laptops and salvaged machines to ensure that the Morning Star did not miss a beat.

Even today, some remain holed up at home, while the rest of us have had to come to terms with a new set of rules at work.

Many workers put up with far greater privations on a daily basis, but sitting cheek by jowl in a windowless room is certainly not the ideal way of putting together a national daily paper.

Yet, with the Morning Star banner set against one wall and the design awards won during the 1950s hanging above us, we also know that we've been honouring some of our titanic predecessors by guiding this paper through the latest chapter in its rich history.

While there have been obvious downsides, the last few months have had their upsides too.

The place has been positively buzzing, with ideas and political discussion flying across the room. And we've pulled even closer together as a team than we were before the fire.

That's not to say that news of the renovation work didn't cause more than one sigh of relief. Finally, the end is in sight.

And a new beginning is in sight too. As soon as we're back in the newsroom, there's the little matter of planning the biggest forward step for our print edition in decades.

Deputy editor Bill Benfield is masterminding our return upstairs. He's also getting his head around the plans for a bigger, better paper that have stirred up a tangible sense of excitement among the staff.

"Of course, it's not quite as simple as just deciding to have more pages," he says. "Every time the paper changes, there are always new issues to address. More pages mean more staff, more staff mean more space and more computers.

"We are now looking for a 30-foot shoehorn to fit them into our comparatively tight available space - either that or skyhooks!

"And that is not even taking into account issues of allocating space between the paper's various sections and the proportion of advertising coverage."

Nevertheless, Benfield, who has been through some of the paper's darkest days together with editor John Haylett, is well and truly up for it.

"For once, these are positive problems. If we get it right, we will have the only national newspaper to grow and develop during a massive crisis of capitalism and that has to be a target worth aiming at."