Digital Journalism Trends in 2016: Why audience engagement holds the key to a thriving future

Audience engagement is one of those phrases which makes a lot of eyes roll. ‘Just let us get on with the journalism’ is one response I’ve heard a few times. It’s an understandable response, but if there is one thing which is going to determine the winners from the losers in the brand race to

Proof the BBC just doesn’t understand the regional Press – but so easily could make a difference if it did

It’s easy to write a blog post bashing the BBC, especially when writing about the relationship the BBC has had with large parts of the regional press for a long time. There’s no doubt that there has been a change in thinking and approach within parts of the BBC over the last year, perhaps triggered

FOI Friday: Children at risk, data lost in the post, unsolved murders and the not-so-smart motorways

Criminals avoid jail despite dozens of crimes < Get WestLondon Criminals in London are escaping jail sentences for serious crimes, despite dozens of previous convictions for similar offences. A burglar in London was not given a custodial sentence at a court appearance in June 2014, despite 33 previous burglary offences and 58 total previous convictions,

How can the BBC get it so wrong on the local press?

Senior managers at the BBC aren’t stupid. They will have known the reaction their suggestion that the ‘decline’ of the regional press means the BBC has to be better at local news will have had. Given the organisation has been trying to work more closely with the regional press, and be a better neighbour, in

FOI Friday: Unidentified bodies, chugging, bedroom tax costs and ambulance delays

How many unidentified bodies have been discovered by police? < Liverpool Echo THE ECHO today explores the riddle of 11 mystery bodies that lay open on Merseyside Police’s files. The unidentified bodies and body parts – dating back to 1972 – include a decomposed foot found in a trainer which washed up on Hightown beach

FOI Friday: Begging arrests, restorative justice and the many languages spoken in schools

Rise in arrests for begging < London Evening Standard A homeless charity says an increase of almost 90 per cent in arrests in London for begging is allowing more drug addicts to get treatment. Statistics released by the Metropolitan Police under the Freedom of Information Act show 730 people were arrested on the city’s streets

More local people visited local news websites in local election week than voted. What does that mean for local journalism and accountability?

In Manchester at the local elections, 115,000 turned out to vote. In the 10 days around the election, more people than that within Manchester visited the Manchester Evening News website. In Birmingham, it was a similar story on the Birmingham Mail website – more people from within Birmingham visited the Mail website than appear to

FOI Friday: Babies missing from care homes, absent pupil fines, stalking laws and sexting complaints

Schools starting to make use of fines for absent pupils < Harrogate Advertiser An investigation by the Advertiser series has found that nearly eight times more fines were issued in North Yorkshire, year on year, in the first quarter of the new rules. Countywide, there were 95 fines issued from September to December, compared to

Social media: How knowing how Jeff effs gives you a competitive advantage on social media

Swearing. Your parents might have told it’s not big or clever … but when it comes to getting the most out of Twitter, a tactical use of f***, f***ing or s**t could take you a very long way. Joanna Geary, head of news partnerships at Twitter, proved two things when she spoke at the Revival

Revival of Local Journalism conference: 13 themes which matter for the future

I spent yesterday at the Revival of Local  Journalism conference held by the BBC and the Society of Editors at MediaCity in Salford. It brought together people from all forms of local media, and in that sense was rather unique. There were a lot of interesting views point across, and a few odd ones. I’ll