A move by two reporters – Andy Nott of the Manchester Evening News and Joanne Clements of the Press Association – secured the lifting of reporting restrictions that protected the anonymity of a 13-year-old drink-driver.
They handed letters to Salford Youth Court referrring to the public interest in naming him, because of the seriousness of the offences and his previous record, when he appeared for sentencing.

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle has published a thank you message to readers who supported its Sunshine Fund Charity, which raised £130,000 for the second year running, in 2004.
Scores of youngsters across the North East who are battling serious illness or living with a disability have seen the quality of their lives enhanced.

A journalism training organisation that started 2004 as the smallest ended the year as one of the biggest.
Cleland Thom Journalism Training Services trained more than 600 journalists during the year, ranging from juniors to editors. They included staff at the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Post and Echo, the Birmingham Post and Mail, the South Wales Argus and 10 other regional daily papers.

An exhibition of pictures by Lincolnshire Echo photographers is on show in Lincoln Central Library until Saturday, January 29.
The photographs all appeared in the Echo’s pages in 2004 and chart the comings and goings in the county. It follows a similar successful display a year ago.

A team of budding teenage journalists have been honing their skills under the guidance of Evening Gazette editor Steve Dyson.
They produced a newspaper of their own at the Gazette’s media centre and were given an insight into the laws of libel, copyright and anti-discriminatory practices. Their work will appear as an Evening Gazette supplement in March.