After 1,187 different stories, I’m sorry to say that this, the 1,188th, will be the last piece published on The Charlton Champion. We have now closed. Thank you for your custom.

There’s a bit more to say than that, of course. Firstly, I’d like to thank those who have contributed over the nearly 13 years this website has been running – Neil Clasper has been a huge help in keeping the show on the road, while Matt Clinch, Linzi Kinghorn, Lara Ruffle Coles and Nikki Coates have been invaluable contributors. 

I’m also hugely grateful to the people who helped chip in to our costs through PressPatron and Patreon. That paid the bills and made the work put into this  website financially sustainable. In different circumstances, it could have been the springboard to something bigger, but it wasn’t to be. Thank you all.

Lots of people have said very nice things about The Charlton Champion – one person told me it was an element in their decision to move to the area. It’s even helped me pick up other work, which in itself has helped keep the site going.

Unfortunately, a lack of time and energy means I now have to bring this to an end. This announcement should have been made a month ago, but work and life has got in the way.

This website was set up during a brief flowering of hyperlocal websites – the term’s now stretched beyond all meaning so I prefer not to use it – when a load sprang up around London and elsewhere. I wasn’t sure there was enough going on in Charlton to justify one, but had some time on my hands so thought I’d give it a go.

If things had gone differently, The Charlton Champion would have been one of a thriving network of true hyperlocal sites. There’d be a really good one in Woolwich, a stroppy one in Plumstead, an optimistic one on the Peninsula, a posh one around the Standard, an even posher one in Blackheath Village. And about three in Greenwich itself. 

All would be locally owned and sharing their news with the world, looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past. Local councillors and campaigners would contribute. Community groups would have their say. People being the change they wanted to be.

It didn’t happen that way, and I think that’s a real tragedy. Social media was a help at first, but then became a rival.  Community groups started to tell social media about their events rather than us, so Twitter and Facebook/Instagram could make money out of their news. Without the time to build – or rebuild – relationships and persuade people that a local enterprise producing a widely-read local website should really be their first port of call, the game was up. 

The moment that sealed it for me came when a large local organisation asked us to run a free promotion for an event with the kind of ticket prices that might exclude a lot of local people. We generally give those types of events a miss, but I suggested they might like to pay a small fee to run an advertisement instead. They declined, saying they didn’t have a budget. Local organisations should support each other, yet somehow, we’d become cut out.

I don’t want to be too sour, though. It’s been a real privilege to bring local news and information to my neighbours. I will miss working with all the local groups that have given us their news over the years. 

Ultimately, though, it’s run its course. It’s probably appropriate we come to an end just as the first possible green shoots of a new Charlton – the new flats on Eastmoor Street and the redevelopment of the Victoria pub could be the start of a very slow transformation of the Charlton Riverside.

That’s a whole different story, though, I’ll continue to cover that and other big issues across Greenwich borough over at The Greenwich Wire. That’ll also be the new home for Kevin Nolan’s Charlton Athletic match reports, which will resume next month. 

From The Charlton Champion, though, it’s goodbye, and thank you for reading.