Pocklington Post makes a virtue of parish pump stories written by readers

Pocklington - nicknamed Pock - is a small market town in the Yorkshire Wolds, about 13 miles (or 21 kms) from the city of York.Its population of 8,337 is served by a weekly newspaper, the Pocklington Post, which was chosen by its owner, Johnston Press, to pioneer the publishing of user generated content (UGC).Since January, the editor has aimed at having 75% of the paper originated by the town's residents and readers. Last time the paper's circulation was audited, in the final six months of 2012, it sold a weekly average of 3,302 copies.So Steve Dyson, the former Birmingham Mail editor who monitors local and regional papers, decided to take a look at "all this UGC palaver" for his HoldTheFrontPage column.The result? He was genuinely delighted and discovered that the readers also seemed to appreciate the initiative. After detailing pages of content, here are Dyson's key comments:"I know, I know - much of the above is parish pump stuff, but before you make that cynical leap remember: that's largely what very local papers should be about.The resulting copy may be a little loose in style, but there seems to me to be finer detail, more names and probably fewer factual errors."It will be fascinating to see what effect it has on both print sales and online subscriptions. The irritating thing, because the Pock Post's sales are now audited on a yearly basis, is that we won't know until spring 2015.Regional & local newspapersJohnston PressNewspapersCitizen mediaRoy... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]

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