Social: Shouting about trust

    On Friday, something a little special happened within the regional Press. An industry built on journalistic competition came together across the country with one aim: To shout about our most special asset: Our trusted journalism. In an age of fake news, misinformation, disinformation and of suspicion or contempt for anything outside the personal

Social: Why speed cameras are more interesting than politicans

If the news agenda is to be believed this week, we’ve been talking about nothing but the general election in our day to day lives. Not for the first time, the stories getting reaction on social media from the local press perhaps challenge our sense of what readers want and expect. But some good news

London Attacks: Constant conversation with readers drives newsroom decisions

Why should local news outlets be reporting on events in London in real-time? That was the question posed by some on Twitter yesterday. What value does it add to live blog in Blackpool when events are happening 300 miles away? One post given prominence by industry website Holdthefrontpage suggested local newsrooms were ‘milking a tragedy’ while

The Second City Derby and the other problem with Facebook Trending

The ‘Second City Derby’ took place yesterday – between Aston Villa and Birmingham City. Having worked with the Birmingham Mail for almost a decade, I now understand why so many fans of the two sides get so frustrated with the national media’s attitude to the city’s football clubs. You don’t need to spend a long

Facebook needs to offer newsrooms a panic button for important stories

Shortly before the elections in the summer, I was sat outside Dublin Airport trying to get an Uber ride to the Irish Mirror. A pop-up appeared on my screen telling me it was important to make sure I’d registered to vote. Uber – reminding me of my civic duty to vote. Doing, in some ways,

EU referendum: What does the social media reaction tell us about coming out in favour of Remain?

Several titles I work with have, over the past week, urged readers to vote ‘remain’ in Thursday’s EU referendum. Contrary to the popular myth being shared on some parts of social media by Brexiteers, each editor has been free to decide whether their titles should back either side, or remain neutral. I think the titles

Journalism’s challenge isn’t Facebook. It’s much bigger than that

The annual Reuters Institute Digital News Report contains so many interesting insights into where online journalism – and the consumption of it – is heading it can be hard to know where to start. Most of the coverage has focused around the stat that up to half of people now get their news on social

The currency of endorsement (or why Facebook likes matter)

Every month, brands within the company I work for, Trinity Mirror, publish the number of followers they have on Facebook and Twitter, along with unique browser data. Every month, the data is picked up by the trade press, including sites such as Hold the Front Page, and reported in a straight-down-the-middle sort of way. And

Twitter at 10: 11 things news brands can do to get better at Twitter

10 years ago, Twitter was born. A decade on and there’s a lot of talk about where Twitter ‘goes next.’ This isn’t one of those pieces, although if you do want that, this article from Mashable raises some good points. Instead I want to focus on journalism’s – specifically regional journalism’s – relationship with social

Facebook’s challenge to journalists: Make your work shareable to be successful

Facebook’s latest algorithm changes came into view last Friday. Posted late in the evening UK time, the social network said it was going to using data from a tiny sample of users via surveys to help determine what everyone else saw in their feed. The idea, claims Facebook, is to make the news feed ‘fundamentally human.’ Basing