Recent posts in my Regional press Category
December 13, 2012
“Live blogging breakfast at the Manchester Evening News” - Seb Ramsay at news:rewired
At news:rewired, Seb Ramsay of the Manchester Evening News explained how a rolling news live blog had brought them closer to their audience. Here are my notes from the session.
February 16, 2010
'Identity' at The Wellcome Colection
A visit to the Identity exhibition at The Wellcome Collection was the first time I've seen 'blog comments' appear as part of an exhibition.
January 18, 2010
Council coverage in local newspapers: Waltham Forest and Romford
Sarah Hartley has been using the 'Help me investigate' crowd-sourced journalism tool to find out how local newspapers cover local councils. I've chipped in with a review of coverage in the Waltham Forest Guardian and the Romford Recorder.
December 1, 2009
Don't put Johnston Press on trial over their paywall experiment
Don't put Johnston Press on trial
You might not think local paywalls will work, but you can't blame Johnston Press for trying.
November 10, 2009
"My first term" - a seventies pull-out in a noughties local paper?
I'm the kind of person who still buys a local paper, and this week in the Waltham Forest Guardian I noticed a feature I found distinctly odd. "My First Term" is an 8 page pull-out compiling school classroom pictures from a variety of nearby local authorities. The geographical range covered is quite wide, including Walthamstow, Woodford Green, Loughton and Waltham Abbey. Initially, I couldn't help but be surprised that, in these days of media paedosteria, the paper was trying to...
May 29, 2009
"Actor in Muswell Hill UFO Sighting Mystery!"
Having written a few posts recently about the potential impact of local council publications on the local press in London, I have to confess that sometimes, when I see what is making the billboards belonging to the Muswell Hill Journal, I can understand why Haringey Council think they need their own magazine as well...!...
May 27, 2009
'Local newspaper week' - The local council publicity machine
During 'Local newspaper week', I wrote about the impact of local council newspapers on the commercial press. This led to some really interesting comments, and as a result I surveyed the publications produced by London's Boroughs. A quarter of them are at least fortnightly, and over 70% of them take commercial advertising, including giving away free classified listings in one instance, and yet the LGA insists that they do not compete. Another reason that I struggle to buy the necessity...
May 26, 2009
'Local newspaper week' - Council newspapers in London
"H&F News is Hammersmith & Fulham's leading newspaper, with more readers, more news and more influence than any other paper. If you are looking for a way to reach homes across Fulham, Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush which is cost effective and reliable, then look no further. 87,000 copies of H&F News are delivered monthly to homes across the borough - more than any other local media." That must sound pretty attractive to an advertiser trying to target the local area....
May 22, 2009
'Do online newspapers have a future in a Digital Britain' - MTM London round-table session
I mentioned yesterday that I went to a round table panel session this week hosted by MTM London. Entitled 'Do online newspapers have a future in a Digital Britain', it was held under the Chatham House Rule, which rather precludes me writing it up as fully as I normally would. Instead I've picked out some unattributed quotes from the evening... [1] "People are cynical about single brands, and don't want to be spoon-fed" The point was made that people are...
May 15, 2009
'Local Newspaper Week' - Being local...
This week has been, according to the Newspaper Society, 'Local Newspaper Week'. It seemed like an opportune moment to blog about some of the things I've noticed about my local newspapers since I moved to Muswell Hill. I've been collecting clippings and pictures of the Muswell Hill Journal and Ham & High Broadway since October, and so far this week I've blogged about advertising, some of the issues around local democracy and the potential impact of the local council's own...
May 14, 2009
'Local Newspaper Week' - Council newspapers
Between the 11th and 17th May, the Newspaper Society has been promoting 'Local Newspaper Week'. To coincide with this, I've been blogging about some of the things I've noticed about my local newspapers since moving into Muswell Hill last October. So far I've looked at advertising, and at some of the issues around local democracy. Local council newspapers The business model of the regional press is under severe strain. Not only is the economic situation affecting display advertising, but the...
May 13, 2009
'Local Newspaper Week' - Democracy
For 'Local Newspaper Week' I've been looking at some of the things I've noticed about my local press in Muswell Hill since I moved there back in October. Yesterday I was looking at some issues around advertising. Today I wanted to look at local democracy. One of the principle reasons for ensuring that our regional media survives the current economic climate is because of the diligent role they play in attending council meetings, court proceedings, and holding local organisations like...
May 12, 2009
'Local Newspaper Week' - Advertising
This week it is the Newspaper Society's 'Local Newspaper Week'. I'm writing a series of blog posts looking at some of the things I've noticed about my local newspapers over the last few months, in print and online. Today I wanted to look a little at the advertising in my local press. Births, deaths and adverts One of the traditional areas of revenue generation for the local newspaper was the 'announcements' page, where people paid to publicly announce births, deaths...
May 11, 2009
'Local Newspaper Week' - Welcome to your new local...
This week the Newspaper Society is promoting 'Local Newspaper Week'. The aim is to highlight the valuable links that our UK regional press provide with their communities. I've been collecting some clippings and screen-shots from several regional papers in print and online over the last few months, and so it seemed an appropriate week to start blogging about them. Welcome to your new local... I came back to London in October last year, and, being a newspaper kind of guy,...
May 10, 2009
JEEcamp 2009 round-up
I had a great time at JEEcamp in Birmingham on Friday, at what was a really interesting 'unconference' around the theme of Journalism Enterprise and Experimentation. "JEEcamp is an opportunity for a range of people to get together to talk about how on earth journalists and publishers can make a living from journalism in the era of free information, what the challenges are, and what we've learned so far." The day started in a surreally bemusing fashion for me as...
April 24, 2009
Interview with a Scott Trust Bursary student - Helia Phoenix
I mentioned earlier this week that I had been to a lunch that formed part of an 'Insight into Journalism Day' at The Guardian. Whilst I was there, as well as meeting some Guardian journalists and some of the visiting students, I met Helia Phoenix, one of the recipients of this year's Scott Trust Bursaries. I got to ask her some questions about why she wants to move into journalism, and her attitudes to news in print and online. @currybet:...
January 22, 2009
Are Ofcom's regional news funding proposals an opportunity for the local press?
Thinking further about yesterday's document from Ofcom, it seems to me that the issues around regional public service news provision highlight all the things that are wrong with the current regulatory framework. We are living in a converged media ecosphere. Radio stations, for example, are delivered over FM, DAB, Freeview, Sky and the Internet. Television stations put their news online, and when they do so, are indistinguishable from newspapers, who are now running their own online TV channels. The audience...
January 21, 2009
President Obama coverage on the UK's regional press websites
President Obama coverage on the UK's regional press websites
A look at how the 20 regional websites I've been reviewing covered the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
January 11, 2009
Local search: Seeing the UK's regional press through the eyes of Google
I've been writing a series of posts looking at site search across some of the UK's leading regional papers. Yesterday I published a table of their features. In this last part of the series, I want to take a slightly different approach. I'm looking not at how people can search for content on the sites themselves, but how the sites appear when people search for them in Google. Google 'Search-in-search' Norfolk's Eastern Daily Press site was the only site...
January 10, 2009
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 4
Over the last 3 days I've been looking at the site search services provided across the 20 regional newspaper sites that I have been studying. The quality of the services varied widely, from a site like EDP24 basically begging the user to go off and try Google News instead, to the 'This is...' network of sites providing a sophisticated faceted filtering mechanism. Today I wanted to publish a couple of table featuring a summary of some of my findings...
January 9, 2009
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 3
This week I've been writing a series of posts looking at the site search facilities provided by some of the UK's leading regional newspapers. Eastern Daily Press The EDP24 site has a very small search box located in the very top right-hand side of the homepage. This is labelled with an image that says 'News Database', and is titled 'Story search'. When the results page initially loads, it is hard to see any results, as there are three large...
January 8, 2009
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 2
Over recent months I've been writing a loose series of articles that focus on the website provision of the UK's leading regional newspapers. Yesterday I started a mini-series concentrating on the site search facilities offered by the 20 local newspapers with the biggest circulations, with a look at the Manchester Evening News, Glasgow Evening Times and some of the papers belonging to the icNetwork of online papers. This is... Search on the 'This is...' network is accessed via a...
January 7, 2009
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 1
Since the end of November I have been publishing a rather loose collection of articles looking at some of the features of the UK's leading regional newspaper sites. I've picked 20 sites that represent the print papers with the largest circulation, and cover the major publishing groups. So far I've looked at the provision of online video, local news RSS feeds and their subscriber numbers, and the spread of social bookmarking links through the sites. Today I'm starting a...
December 19, 2008
Local social: Contextual help for social bookmarking in the UK's regional press
Over the last couple of days I've been looking at the social bookmarking offerings of the 20 regional newspaper websites that I've been reviewing. Usually when I do this kind of survey I also look at the contextual help provided alongside the buttons. How do sites explain social bookmarking to their users? West Midlands Express & Star Shropshire Star For example, the West Midlands Express and Star (and by extension, the Shropshire Star) has a link saying "What are these?"...
December 18, 2008
Local social: Social bookmarking links in the UK's top regional papers - Part 2
Yesterday I started looking at the social bookmarking features on some of the UK's leading regional newspaper websites, and also pointed out the excellent research that Louise Thomas has just carried out in this area. Today I want to continue with a look at the social bookmarking links on another 10 local press sites. This is... The 'This is...' series of sites all of a similar social media set-up, with links included in a "This story" panel at the...
December 17, 2008
Local social: Social bookmarking links in the UK's top regional papers - Part 1
I've been turning my attention to the online presence of the UK's leading regional papers. So far I've looked at their provision of RSS feeds, Google subscriber take-up, and I've looked at the online video features they offer. Today I want to look at an area which can be seen as a barometer of how closely a site has been paying attention to fashionable online developments - the provision of links to social bookmarking sites. Manchester Evening News Of...
December 8, 2008
Local RSS: Google Reader subscriber numbers for the UK's top regional papers
A couple of weeks ago I published a list of the Top 75 British Newspaper RSS feeds in Google Reader. Since I've been looking at the RSS feeds published by the UK's top 20 regional papers, so I thought I'd make a note of their subscriber numbers as well. The table below plots the popularity of the main RSS feed from each paper's website in Google Reader. There are two things of particular note. Firstly, the number of subscribers...
December 3, 2008
Local RSS: What do the leading regional newspapers offer? - Part 2
Yesterday I had a look at the RSS provision of ten of the UK's leading regional newspapers. Today I want to continue looking at the newspapers that make up the rest of my regional 'top twenty'. Birmingham Mail The Birmingham Mail offers a range of nearly 200 feeds, which can be found by visiting the site map. The main feed is auto-discoverable from the homepage, but the RSS logo in the top-right of the page leads to information about...
December 2, 2008
Local RSS: What do the leading regional newspapers offer? - Part 1
With job cuts and financial uncertainty in the sector, and the BBC Trust's decision to prevent the BBC producing £68m worth of new local news content, I've turned my attention to a selection of the UK's leading regional newspapers to assess their online offerings. I started last week with with an overview of the video content that they provide. Today I wanted to turn my attention to RSS - and look at the syndication services provided by ten of...
November 24, 2008
Local online news video - where do we go from here?
With the announcement of the BBC Trust decision not to allow the BBC to go into English ultra-local news journalism, a huge amount of attention has fallen on the existing regional press. On balance, I think it was probably just about right not to allow the BBC to make more video content available in this area at this time, but, claims that this would have lead to a stifling of commercial content and innovation look pretty hollow if you are...