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Council’s budget meeting video-streamed by paper

A regional daily ensured its readers had access to one of the town’s most important council meetings in history by using video streaming.

The Bolton News streamed the full three hour meeting where Bolton Council’s approved budget cuts of £41m to hundreds of readers on its website.

Political correspondent Andrew Greaves provided up-to-date text coverage using the CoveritLive blogging service, while Paul Dobson filmed the full meeting to ensure nothing was missed.

The paper has previously used video streaming to cover marches by the English Defence League and the funeral of footballing legend Nat Lofthouse.

Multimedia editor David Crookes said: “Readers are increasingly demanding greater immediacy in our news coverage and our reporters love the buzz of reporting on live events.

“The preliminary reader figures from the night are extremely encouraging.”

Meanwhile at sister weekly the Bury Times, senior reporter Sarah Poole reported on Bury Council’s budget meeting using Twitter and by providing exclusive analysis online, due to the deadline of the paper.

Visitors to both websites left their own comments engaging with the reporters, with one reader from Denmark remarking how much he had enjoyed it.