As the freelance writer of the Folk column in the Examiner I can confirm that Tykes News was not misinformed - Laurie and I were told that our services were no longer needed by the Examiner and that folk and jazz would be covered within features by staff journalists which is what has happened. There was no indication as to whether this would be a regular thing or just as and when they were given information.
The main problem that we foresee is that the staff journalists are already under huge pressure to cover their existing specialist areas and do not have the time or knowledge to do the research through local and national publications that we used to do. On the whole they do not have the expertise to know whether a press release they receive is telling them the truth or not (I'm sure we have all read material that is very questionable!) and could therefore, unintentionally give a false impression of what to expect of a gig. Also they are unlikely to be able to give the wider picture that we were able to provide.
Cath