Tag Archives: Local media

Adrian Jeakings will replace John Fry at Archant

Following the news that Archant’s CEO John Fry will be the new chief executive at Johnston Press, Archant have announced that Adrian Jeakings will replace him.

Jeakings, currently finance director at the Archant group, will commence the role on November 1. Prior to working at Archant he was the group finance director of the Stationery Office.

Brian McCarthy will replace Jeakings as Archant’s group finance director.

The chairman of Archant, Richard Jewson, said in a release published today: “Both Adrian and Brian have contributed a great deal to our success and it is a tribute to John Fry that he has created such a strong management team”.

Johnston Press have also released a statement announcing that Fry will take over from the retiring CEO, Tim Bowdler, from January 5 2009.

In the release, John Fry said: “I am extremely excited to be joining Johnston Press and relish the opportunity to build on the success of Tim Bowdler and his team. The company has a strong local media franchise covering large parts of the UK and Ireland which I look forward to developing in both print and digital formats.”

Local Newspaper Week to be covered by journalist bloggers

Local newspaper journalists are to blog on the progress of current campaigns in their newspapers for Local Newspaper Week – an event organised by the Newspaper Society to raise awareness of local media.

It is hoped the blogs, which form part of the event’s official website, will appeal to consumers, a press release from the society said, while allowing local titles to promote themselves and their campaigns.

Contributors so far include Mark Bowen, deputy news editor of the Hereford Times, and Donna Pryce, reporter with the Derry Journal.

This year’s Local Newspaper Week will take place between May 5-11.

Audio: Regional newspapers compete with football clubs online

Leading English football clubs are in competition as web publishers with local and regional newspapers.

Footballing giants, like Manchester United or Liverpool Football Club, have huge online and TV publishing arms which they use as revenue streams and to control the flow of news coming from the club.

But it’s not just the big clubs that have got in on the act.

Journalism.co.uk spoke to William Watt, digital sports reporter with the Lancashire Evening Post, about how he sees the changing landscape of online news now that smaller football clubs, like his local club Preston North End, are publishing their own stories on the web.

[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/williamwattedit.mp3]

For the club hitting a good balance with the local media is the key.

“It’s a tricky job trying to be both press officer and web publisher,” Matt Morris, Preston North End’s media manager, told Journalism.co.uk.

“It throws up a conflict of interest at times as there are elements of competition between the club and the press.”

While there is an onus to feed good stories to the clubs website, he added, the club still needed to be promoted locally as it was in competition with several other local clubs for revenue, that necessitated having a good working relationship with the media and striking a balance between the needs of the club as an online publisher and feeding the local media.