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The Worthing Sentinel
& Paul Holden, its founder & editor.
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It saddens me to hear the news that The Worthing Sentinel has been closed down by its owners, Newsquest Media Group who also publishes The Argus in Sussex.
The Sentinel started life as a monthly supplement in The Argus before becoming a ‘stand alone’ publication delivered once a month with Property Weekly to over 43,000 houses across the Worthing area.
As a monthly it could never really be described as a ‘newspaper’, despite being printed in tabloid format on newsprint paper, it read more like a magazine – with an eclectic mix of fascinating articles on people, places, events, buildings and the history associated with the area.
Paul Holden, the man that created this unique publication and its editor, was always championing the town and adopted a very a positive editorial approach – something sadly missing in many local papers across the land.
Paul will be remembered for such things are organising the annual charity "fruit flinging" extravaganza on the seafront, to commemorate the SS Indiana running aground, in March 1901, spewing her cargo - tens of thousands of oranges and lemons, and the annual appeal for the donation of flags to decorate the promenade.
Readers will also remember the often re-published photo of Paul marching across London Bridge with his sandwich board and placard proclaiming ‘There’s no smog in Sunny Worthing’ and ‘Visit Worthing, it’s a Sunny Delight’ to promote the town. He is passionate about ‘Sunny Worthing’ and produced several posters featuring designs from old postcards and that slogan, which used to be available for free from the former Sentinel & Argus office in Chapel Road.
Paul not only complied The Sentinel, but also used to file regular reports from Worthing and across West Sussex for The Argus.
It was at this point that The Sentinel was converted from a monthly to weekly publishing cycle and combined with Property Weekly in the hope of making a big enough publication to remain commercially viable in the market. A slight change in format occurred as certain pages were now used for a ‘news round-up’, but it still retained a very unique feel and remained well read and liked locally.
It was around this time that the Chapel Road offices were closed and the responsibility of advertising sales was moved from Worthing to the area head-office in Brighton.
So why did such a popular publication end-up being closed? Well, no doubt, part of the problem has been the downturn in local advertising as a result of the recession, but I believe there was a foundational lack of understanding of how popular The Sentinel was at by the management at The Argus head-office in Brighton.
If the correct resources, which would have become more than self-financing, had been put into advertising sales I believe it would still be a very strong and profitable paper, and I say that from the experience of having sold space for The Sentinel in the past. On and off, over the last 28 years, I’ve sold advertising for a variety of local media, across the south-east & south-west of England and in the Irish Republic, and The Sentinel was one of the easiest to sell.
So, it’s R.I.P. to The Worthing Sentinel and good luck to Paul Holden in whatever the future holds for him.
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