A new project from the Hull Daily Mail is bringing news and views written by the city's children into their evening paper.

It is an education and youth service project being co-ordinated by the Mail and reporter Matt Stephenson.

It grew from a literature festival he was involved with for the paper - and was galvanised by the fact that Hull has some of the poorest educational attainment in the country.

Matt worked with different agencies and seven young people from the city's estates at a series of meetings to produce the copy for the eight-page pull-out bigMOUTH, funded by the Hull Daily Mail and advertising sales with future editions to be paid for by the Creative Partnerships fund.

Matt said: "From all points of view the pilot was a great success. All kinds of organisations want to get involved."

The first edition gave a profile of Matt and the seven youngsters involved, along with an editorial by Matt to explain what the project - and the publication - was all about.

There were features on underage sales of alcohol and cigarettes, an interview with the chief constable, a review of a play for schools and an extended vox-pop on what young people think of life in Hull.

The first edition also featured a discussion on issues surrounding asylum seekers in and around the city.

Matt said: "Over four weeks we had just four two-hour sessions to decide what the content would be and then arrange interviews and get the job done.

"That's a tight deadline for anyone, but when you consider that these young people are not professional journalists (not yet, though they all could be if they want to) they're just young people with strong views and a desire to express themselves, there's clearly no denying they have done a remarkable job."

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail pastill@nep.co.uk