Tag Archives: The Echo

Darlington Councillor: Council newspapers and a ‘one-eyed’ local press

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(via HoldtheFrontPage)

Labour councillor for Haughton West, Nick Wallis, responds to comments made by Northern Echo editor Peter Barron about the impact of council newspapers on the local press.

Wallis says he isn’t sure council budget cutting will inevitably lead to the closure of local authority publications (much criticised by the local media for their impact on advertising revenues and local democratic coverage).

“A key point is that a lot of local newspapers, do not operate like the Echo which is broadly fair in its treatment of news stories. It’s a bum rap if whatever you do, no matter how well, the local paper slags you off as ‘loony left’ because of the general political bias of the media group. It’s precisely the one-eyed nature of a lot of the local press that generated the growth of council magazines, because local authorities wanted to talk directly to their residents, and avoid the hostile spin continually imposed by media,” writes Wallis.

However, he later adds that councils should do more to support local media and encourage a ‘strong, independent local press’.

“At the same time, local papers have to accept that councils have the right to communicate directly with their residents, and not always have to have their news reflected through the prism of the paper,” he says.

Full post at this link…

See also: ‘Council newspapers: a disaster for democracy’

Pat on own back: Councillor says Daily Echo should take responsibility for his online alter ego

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Bournemouth’s Daily Echo has revealed the identity of an online user after he praised himself under an anonymous username.

The Echo reports how praise for Councillor Ben Grower on its site turned out to be authored by a certain, erm, Councillor Ben Grower, under the name Omegaman.

  • Underneath a story about surf reef Omegaman wrote: “At least two councillors seem to be concerned about this mess. Well done Cllrs Ratcliffe and Grower.”
  • Writing about a housing plan in Kinson he wrote: “I have friends who live in the area. They say councillors Ted Taylor and Ben Grower fought hard against the proposals”
  • And on the subject of an expanding dentist’s surgery he wrote: “Just shows that the area does have councillors who care about their residents… Well done Ted Taylor, Ben Grower and Beryl Baxter.”

The Echo reports:

“Cllr Grower said responsibility lies with the Daily Echo because people can post under assumed names, and that the comments were only fun that no-one took seriously.”

The Echo says that when Grower was challenged, he initially said that the comments ‘could be anybody’, but later said: “I have done nothing against the law. And probably next time I will just use a different pseudonym.”

And the Echo’s response:

“The Echo does respect its readers’ right to anonymity but we felt that when a councillor pretends to be somebody else to improve his reputation that it is of sufficient public interest to tell people about it.” (Nick Rowe, website editor)

A comment below the article questions the paper’s decision to reveal user information. ‘Silky’ writes:

“Seriously though, I think people feel able to post and air their true opinion safe in the knowledge that they are kept anonymous. I for one don’t appreciate the Echo revealing personal details of posters, especially to create a pretty boring ‘scoop’.”

Bournemouth based blogger, Chris Nee, raises the question of anonymity protection:

“So, should anonymity mean anonymity regardless? Or does the public have a right to know when a public official is acting in a duplicitous way?”

(Hat tip for Echo links: @SamShepherd via Twitter)

How news flows though the partially integrated newsroom of Liverpool Post and Echo papers

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The Hub and Spoke laying out may be in vogue for the majority of those adapting to an integrated newsroom but you’d be hard pressed to call Trinity Mirror’s Liverpool nerve centre anything other than an archipelago.

Alison Gow, deputy editor of Liverpool Daily Post, gave Journalism.co.uk a quick tour and explained how a partially rather than fully integrated newsroom for Liverpool’s Daily Post and Echo newspapers and a portfolio of weeklies served them best.

Similar to other large cities in the UK, Liverpool’s morning paper, the Liverpool Daily Post (typically 15,000 copies circulated per day) and the evening Echo (109,000) serve vastly different markets. To account for this the newsroom has integrated but also demarked areas where each paper’s interest is best served by not mixing processes.

The newsdesks of the Post & Echo had previously been fully integrated but the unsuccessful experiment lasted only 18 months and end in 2001, as it didn’t fully serve the needs each paper had and met with opposition from staff who were resistant to working on the other title.

“I suspect the industry is a lot more broad-minded now as we work across print, internet, TV and radio,” Gow told Journalism.co.uk.

COPY

The dailies and weekly newspapers have adapted and refined a partially integrated newsroom where the two main papers share news copy, but keep diary and features separate.

“A government minister in town would tend to be interviewed by a Post reporter,” Gow told Journalism.co.uk. “That copy would be sent by the Post newsdesk to the Echo newsdesk to be rewritten and subbed down. Echo page leads are around 350, Post 600 plus.

“The Post & Echo share a court reporter but the very distinct target audiences of both papers means what makes a splash in the Echo, gangster trials for example, may struggle to make a page lead in the Post.

“Inquests would be covered by one reporter whose copy would be shared between both papers.

“An exception would be Liverpool council meetings – mostly covered by the council reporters from both papers as it’s a contact-building exercise as much as anything.”

The Echo can also publish stories from the weeklies the day the papers are published, Gow added, as the assistant news editor has access to their content queues.

“It’s a co-operative system and involves the newsdesks, picturedesk and multimedia desks talking to each other. That’s why the command desk is so important,” added Gow.

STAFF

At the centre of the archipelago – the big island – is the command desk where Post and Echo news editors and their deputies sit along with a picture editor who works across both publications and the Echo design editor.

Reporters are title specific, as are the features and sports teams, and both papers have separate features and sports editors and deputy editors, Arts editors and motoring editors.

A multimedia head, working across both titles, also sits on the command desk. As on the web, Gow says, the two publications have ‘more fluid identities’.

Each department desks now has embedded digital journalist. Under the old system ‘they just used to sit in the corner away from everyone else’ said Gow. Now they espouse the need for web content and ensure the website remains an area of focus for each department on each title now that they break 99 per cent of their stories online.

Video is a separate entity altogether – one video journalist is responsible for managing libraries, cutting pieces and training newsroom staff and reporters in video-journalism.

She has trained eight other staff so far, giving them a week’s hands-on training so that they can manage handicams and cut footage. They aim for a new web video each day.

SUBBING

A pool of eight subs work across the Echo, the England and Welsh Daily Posts, Huddersfield Examiner, the Chester Chronicle, the Merseyside and North Wales weekly papers on a rota basis.

There are also title-specific staff who work primarily for each paper – ‘champions’ of each brand, adds Gow.

This approach has shifted subs from thinking they work for a single publication, she said, to a ‘hive-mind’ where they work across several titles.