“A fresh political row is brewing over council newspapers after a Tory-run council in Essex voted to press ahead with plans to spend £100,000 launching its own publication,” reports HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk.
“A motion of no confidence has been passed in a senior Trinity Mirror executive by journalists in Newcastle,” reports HoldTheFrontPage.
“National Union of Journalists members at ncjmedia met yesterday to discuss last week’s departure of regional MD Steve Brown.
“The NUJ chapel passed a resolution saying it had no confidence in the ability of Trinity Mirror Regionals MD Georgina Harvey to lead the company.”
UK regional titles will compete against nationals for this year’s electronic news site and best use of new media prizes at the 2009 Newspaper Awards, according to the full listings on HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk.
Websites for the Belfast Telegraph and Kent Messenger’s Kent Online will go head-head-head with BBC.co.uk, FT.com, Guardian.co.uk, Telegraph.co.uk and Times Online in the news site category.
Candidates for best use of new media include Exeter’s Express&Echo for Kellow’s Bootlaces, FT.com’s Alphaville and the Henley Standard website.
Also of note – the award dedicated to: ‘Most Significant Contribution to Future Newspaper Success’, for which the nominees are:
Elsewhere the International Newspaper Award is dominated by German representatives, with the Augsburger Allgemeine, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and the Nordkurier all nominated.
The awards are run in cooperation with Fujifilm and the Production Journal celebrating the crème de la crème in newspaper and news media production. The winners will be announced at ceremony on April 22 in London Hilton.
HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk reports that the Hull Daily Mail editor and North-East regional editor John Meehan has said ‘cutting production costs may be the only way the titles can continue to maintain their local content-gathering operations’.
“I genuinely don’t think there is any contradiction. Northcliffe passionately believes in being at the heart of all things local and I don’t think this changes that,” he told HoldTheFrontPage.
Reporters at Suffolk papers the East Anglian Daily Times and Evening Star in Ipswich have joined forces to provide rolling coverage of the murder trial of Steve Wright, the former Ipswich publican accused of murdering five prostitutes in the town between October and December 2006.
Video reports from the trial, which began yesterday, will be available online, in addition to live text updates under a special section on each site. The sites also feature an interactive timeline and Google Earth map of key sites relating to the trial, as well as background information on key individuals in the case.
Speaking to HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk, web editor James Goffin said four reporters were covering the trial – two in court, and two manning a video relay. He added that the court reporters were equipped with a laptop with a mobile connection allowing them to send copy straight from the court to the website.
In the article, Goffin estimated that page impressions on the sites would double during the trial.