How does our press emerge from lockdown? Part three: Regional Sunday Newspapers

I hadn’t planned a third instalment of this series as frankly I have little to no interest in the local Sunday newspaper market these days. Certainly my days of buying five or six Sundays that would see me through to midweek are long gone and, apart from a quick browse of the football sections (usually when I’m in Costa or Nero for an afternoon coffee) there’s not a lot on the front pages of our local Sundays to entice me …

Read more…

Local papers and journalists getting UK-wide recognition at Regional Press Awards

John McGurk (Sunday Life) - winner of Daily/Sunday Reporter of the Year 2011

Running alongside the build-up to and finals of the Eurovision Song Contest, it’s the season of newspaper awards. With fifteen nominations shortlisted across eleven categories in the Society of Editors’ Regional Press Awards, how did NI papers do at Friday’s award lunch when examined against the best of their regional counterparts right across the UK? Daily/Sunday Reporter of the Year John McGurk – Sunday Life – WINNER Bimpe Archer – Irish News – HIGHLY COMMENDED Ciaran Barnes – Sunday Life …

Read more…

Local papers well represented in the Society of Editors’ Regional Press Awards shortlists

Some local newspapers and journalists appear in the shortlists for the Society of Editors’ Regional Press Awards that celebrate the best of UK regional newspaper journalism in 2011. Good to see the local weekly The Ulster Herald making the list alongside Belfast Telegraph, Irish News and Sunday Life success. Given the entrance fee, some local publications may chose not to nominate. However, with only five names in each shortlist, Northern Ireland journalists and titles clearly dominate some of the categories …

Read more…

Did local media have a role in the Boston College case?

I’ve previously noted how some local media seems to get a free pass from the PSNI over their sources/stories while others are dealt with more proactively and recently we’ve seen the press collectively oppose attempts to turn them into an evidence gathering arm of the state. The ongoing legal case to access the Boston College oral history archive may indicate elements of the media already acting in that evidence gathering capacity (hopefully unwittingly). It is impossible to know which arm …

Read more…