Leveson hears from old contact

I was interested to the read latest from the Leveson Inquiry, which touched on how an old contact Martin Salter was treated by the News of the World when he was my MP in Reading. My old paper the Reading Chronicle reported on his written evidence as part of Labour MP Tom Watson’s appearance at [...]

Links I like 12.05.05

Reaction to the elected mayor vote in Bristol – various Well done Bristol for bucking the national trend and voting decisively, if in small numbers, in favour of an elected mayor to lead the city from November. They were the only city to vote yes to the proposal following a pretty low-key campaign on the issue. The Centre for [...]

Digital ambition doesn’t hide bad headlines for local press

I can only imagine the reaction of former Johnson Press colleagues when absorbing recent messages from their chief executive Ashley Highfield about the future of the papers they work for. The ambition to make local news a successful digital product has been talked about for more than a decade, but no regional publisher has yet [...]

Will Twitter tackle ‘turgid job aps’?

Local newspaper editor Alan Geere seems like a man who hates time wasters. The editor in chief of the Essex Chronicle Media Group has become so sick of ‘wading through turgid letters of application’ from job seekers that he’s asking people to keep it short and apply for vacancies using Twitter. On his blog, he [...]

If the relationship’s broken do try to fix it

I’ve had a couple of conversations recently about the difficult relationships some organisations have with the media and the frustration this causes. Problems cited will be familiar to most who work in a local authority press office or deal with the same journalists regularly. Placing a negative slant on every story about your employer, being at loggerheads over a controversial issue or having your [...]

How (not) to win media mates

I blogged last year about organisations who use their websites to slate the media for the negative coverage they are subjected to. There are better, more direct ways to express dissatisfaction, and it is not an approach that will be looked on favourably by a newsdesk the next time a decent story is offered up.

‘Town hall pravdas’ or keeping people informed?

The recent decision by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee to reject Eric Pickles‘ proposals to restrict the publication of council newspapers has reopened a debate on the role such publications should play. In one corner is the Government, which is strongly critical of councils spending public funds on ‘town hall pravdas’ that they see as little better than propaganda magazines. [...]

More councils pick web battles with media

I blogged a couple of weeks ago about why local councils should resist the temptation to use their websites to pick a fight with the local media. This was generated by a website I’d seen which had done this in response to some negative local coverage. I thought this was a rare (and wrong) tactic at the time, and still [...]

Why you shouldn’t get publicly mad (or even) with local media

Whilst researching something the other day, I came across a post on a council website that you rarely see (the authority will remain nameless, although it may be obvious to any staff who read this). In the news section was a headline that read something like: ‘What you didn’t read this week in the [local [...]