A tip-off left on a regional daily’s Facebook page resulted in a front-page story for the paper this week.

North West Evening Mail reporter Amy Fenton set up a Facebook group for the title which she says has generated countless stories.

Earlier this week, one of the group’s 2,000 ‘friends’ left a post on the site saying a body had been found on a Barrow street.

It enabled the CN Group-owned paper to be first on the scene, leading to a front-page splash with pictures and video footage.

Amy has already visited all the newsrooms in the CN Group to give a presentation on Facebook and how it can be used as a journalistic tool.

Although some newspaper groups have banned their journalists from looking at the social networking site, she has been encouraging as many of her colleagues as possible to use it.

She told HTFP: “Using Facebook is a great way to source stories, get contacts and receive tip-offs.

“The Evening Mail has more than 2,000 friends on Facebook and we have published countless stories that have been generated through the site.”

Deputy editor Phil Pearson added: “Through her own initiative Amy has shown everyone in our newsroom, and across the group, what a multimedia operation can achieve.

“She has embraced Facebook as a source of news and used it as a great way of communicating and interacting with our readers. Her work has benefited both our website and the paper. She has made our operation more immediate and relevant.”

Comments

Ian (29/10/2009 13:16:18)
Johnston Press should take note of this. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are invaluable tools for journalists yet JP employees are banned from using them at work. Ridiculous.

Reason (29/10/2009 14:06:49)
Oh dear. All this does is illustrate the fact that the Barrow editorial team has very poor contacts. At most newspapers somebody would have rang the newsdesk to say ‘there’s been a murder!’ Far quicker, you’ll find. And Facebook is hardly new, journalists have been using it for gathering info since it began… they just tend to get important stuff from good contacts. But well done eh…

Jim (29/10/2009 16:17:26)
Reason – why is someone calling the newsdesk necessarily quicker than posting something on Facebook? What if nobody had answered the newsdesk phone?
This girl could have fantastic contacts but they might not live on the same street as where the body was found.

localgirl (30/10/2009 11:03:32)
I’m sure someone would have RUNG the office at some point, but the fact remains that no matter how much it is denied by newspaper bosses Facebook and associated sites have become essential in an age where decreasing staff levels make it often impossible for reporters to leave the office.
Our office has banned all such sites and as a result we nearly missed a story, much like this one, last week.
It is a silly way to run a news agency- we are in the business of communication in all forms- let us communicate.

Reason (30/10/2009 16:12:19)
True, Facebook is a valuable tool and any journalist on a forward-thinking paper has been using it already for ages. I’m not slating Facebook, I’m just saying that traditional methods of finding stories faster are being eroded because too many people now think all you have to do is sit by the computer and wait for news to come in via Facebook and Twitter, rather than getting out there and meeting real people. Sadly job losses, short-sighted newspaper bosses, poor training etc have created a new breed of journalist who, through little fault of their own, believe stories should just appear on their screen via social network sites or email – I mean how many shoddy PR press releases get printed these days without even being questioned? We are all architects of our own downfall in terms of circulation figures. People will pay for quality reporting and that is being eroded across the country