The Lancashire Evening Post is to relaunch its website within the next month, and will broadcast a special news bulletin fronted by one its readers to mark the occasion.

The Preston-based paper is to be one of the first Johnston Press titles to unveil a new design template which will be rolled out across the group within the next year.

And to make sure the new-look is launched with a bang, the paper ran its own Pop Idol-style competition called News Idol – with the winner reading the news on a video bulletin on www.lep.co.uk on launch day.

Readers were invited to attend an open audition at Preston’s City Council’s Guild Hall, and read a piece to camera in front of judges Simon Reynolds, editor of the LEP, and the Mayor of Preston Coun Bill Tyson.

Each of the audition tapes were then screened on the LEP’s website, before postgraduate journalism student Rachel Murray was chosen as the winner.

Digital editor Martin Hamer said: “We had a good response to the competition and the standard was brilliant. There wasn’t anybody that made a mess of it.

“We have ended up with four runners-up as well, who will also have the chance to read a bulletin at some point because the standard was so high.”

The daily minute-long bulletins are usually read by a member of the LEP news team and broadcast at lunchtime, with the top two news stories, one sports story and the weather included.

As the News Idol winner, Rachel will also receive a tour of the newsroom and a DVD recording of her television debut.

Martin said: “We wouldn’t rule out doing hourly news bulletins or breaking news stories.

“News Idol was an entertaining way of developing the service and we want to keep coming up with new ideas to get people involved.”

The new LEP website will have a more streamlined design with better structured content and improved navigation.

It is also aiming to increase its ‘citizen journalism’ content, encouraging readers to produce their own material.

Since April it has included video and audio content and photo galleries and has been updated with breaking news, as the paper works towards a fully convergent newsroom, with print journalists producing content for the paper and online, and digital journalists producing content for online and print.

The Peterborough Evening Telegraph’s website www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk and the Hemel Hempstead Gazette’s www.hemelonline.co.uk will also be relaunched shortly.