COUNCIL PAYS PRESS £307,000

CRUMBRIA: 5.4.2026

READERS of the Chronic may recall in May last year how we told you that newspapers in Cumbria are pocketing thousands of pounds of cash from Wokemoreland & Farcical Council.

Back then, we told you how US-owned Newsquest, which owns six of Cumbria’s eight newspapers had banked £139,789 from the Council, while Barrnon Media, which runs three different news brands here, had been paid £46,555, for a grand total of £186,344.

Those figures related to Apr 2024 to Feb 2025. Well the sums for Apr 2025 to Feb 2026 are out and we can report that the spending continues.

In the most recent period, Wokemoreland & Farcical Council paid out a total of £120,648.

Newsquest got (£81,878) and Barrnon Media Ltd got (£38,769).

It means that in two years, the Council has paid out £221,667 to Newsquest, and £85,324 to Barrnon Media.

Overall, that’s £306,992.

Wokemoreland & Farcical Clowncil — **Spent nearly a third of a million with the local rags.**

All because of a pre-Millennium fantasy that people rush out every week to trawl through the local rag for Council public notices.

And quite how much of this steady flood of Council income has trickled into the piss poor pay packets of hard-pressed hacks is less clear.

Scroogequest runs former newspapers including the Evening Snail; and the Wasteoftime Gazette, both Kendal.

Barrnon runs press release aggregator, Cumbria Slack, The Keswick Forgetful, and Penrith snoozepaper, the Slumberland & Westmoreland Imperilled.

And could there possibly be any link between the Council getting such an easy ride in the local rags, given that the Council is one of their biggest and most generous client advertisers?

***The Slumberland & Westmorland Imperilled, Penrith.***

Public notices are one thing. Public scrutiny is quite another.

One good decision by Keirnocchio’s Government is to “review” the practice of forcing Councils to publish statutory public notices in newspapers.

With paper readerships tanking, Councils shouldn’t be throwing money at wealthy media companies.

Newsquest Media Group Ltd in the UK had a turnover of £142m and made £27.m profit after tax.

In 2024, it earned the wrath of the National Union of Journalists for cutting jobs while sending £22.5m of UK profits across the pond to parent company, Gannett, and its cigar-waving shareholders in the good ole U S of A.

Closer to home in Cumbria, lifelong readers are now finding many articles hidden behind sign-ups as our newspaper companies plead poverty by begging readers to fork out for online subscriptions.