Two North-East daily newspaper editors have hailed their team’s “magnificent” coverage of the Raoul Moat story in the face of national journalists “waving huge cheques around.”

Writing on his HTFP blog yesterday, Steve Dyson praised the Express and Star for having carried live news of Moat’s death in its Saturday morning edition, a feat that was also managed by The Sentinel, Stoke, and the Manchester Evening News.

Now Paul Robertson, of Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle, and Brian Aitken of Trinity Mirror sister paper The Journal, have decided it’s time HTFP readers heard how their papers covered the story – and how they managed to stay ahead of the national pack.

Here is their full account of one of the biggest weeks in the histories of their respective titles, together with a selection of the front pages it produced.

---

It has been interesting to read on HoldtheFrontPage editors from outside the North East informing us how they covered the extraordinary Raoul Moat story. Now the dust has settled we thought you might be interested in how we saw it from the North East.

Here on our doorstep we have had the national newspapers waving huge cheques in front of people’s eyes (some of them questionable characters to say the least) in pursuit of a sensational new line. Broadcast media gave breathtaking accounts through the eyes of everyone and anybody (especially ex-cops, psychologists and criminologists) as well as getting our own journalists to appear on screen at the drop of a hat to fill the considerable gaps between the action.

But from the moment the first shot was fired in the village of Birtley, Gateshead, our team have covered every cough and spit of the story in-print and online quite magnificently.

It began in the Evening Chronicle on Saturday with three pages about the double shooting and a killer on the run – all gleaned from journalists out in the field when it was initially being treated as a “domestic” by police. The shooting happened at 2.30am and we were on the streets just six seven hours later with a full account thanks to the fact we still print on the day.

Later in the afternoon the police released the fact it was Raoul Moat they were looking for – cue our online updates and the following day’s Sunday Sun, which again was ahead of the game using pictures from previous unrelated stories on Moat from our archives,and on to Monday morning and The Journal had taken the story on even further

Given the seriousness of the situation, Northumbria Police liaised closely with us as we began to take calls from associates of Moat wanting vast sums of money for access to the 49-page letter he had apparently written as well as giving some context as to the reasoning for the gunman’s actions.

Despite having the world’s media on the doorstep – the regional papers – The Journal, Evening Chronicle and Sunday Sun – had several new lines for every single edition thanks to local contacts, knowledge of the area and the trust of those people we spoke to without resorting to chequebook journalism.

Only because we abided by the news blackout did some of the material not come out earlier and when the rest of the world gets bored with the story we will be here working with all parties concerned to get answers to the serious questions the whole episode poses – whether it be the decision not to act on prison advice, the size and cost of the manhunt, the missed opportunities to catch Moat, the use of tasers and so on.

It is also worth noting on the Saturday morning the Chronicle carried seven live news pages recounting the final hours of drama, giving new information on messages and clues left by Moat previously unreported due to the potential for the material to inflame the situation.

We at ncjmedia are immensely proud of the way our dedicated team has worked throughout the day and night to ensure our coverage was fresh, comprehensive, appropriate and sensitive to the communities we serve.

It resulted in brilliant coverage every day – rewarded with big increases in sales and online hits. And it proved that, despite the turbulent times we are in as an industry, regional newspapers are still trusted, relevant and have the talent to capitalise on the biggest of stories.

We cannot praise highly enough everyone in our integrated newsroom for the fantastic attitude, work ethic, teamwork, professionalism and sheer determination they have shown to ensure our titles stood proudly on the newsstands every day throughout this incredible story, with fresh, locally-generated content.

Comments

Steve Dyson (15/07/2010 08:48:03)
This is great stuff. Well done to all in Newcastle for what must have been an exhausting but exhilerating seven days.

Paul Linford (15/07/2010 08:50:27)
I don’t think it’s over yet either Steve – thanks to Facebook and David Cameron!

Steve Dyson (15/07/2010 08:50:29)
Ha! Exhilarating even…!

opto (15/07/2010 09:28:22)
Shows the value of a proper evening paper instead of those tired-looking “get the news next day” morning regionals. What a shame so many evenings became mornings.
Well done to a proper daily regional.

Ronshirt (15/07/2010 10:21:19)
And once again the fact that a lot of PA copy and pictures were used has been quietly ignored by these regional scoop machines!

Steve Dyson (15/07/2010 10:25:48)
While you can make that point, ‘opto’, I don’t think it’s good to write off former evenings. Yes, their strategy has changed; and yes, we may all have opinions on the rights and wrongs of that. But now it has happened, they still have committed and skilled journalists working on how to make their titles captivating without this ‘live’ content. Campaigns; FOI revelations; invesitgations; exclusive interviews; startling human interest stories. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking to find more cracking examples of how this is being done. Anyone who spots anything like this, tip me at [email protected]

Steve Dyson (15/07/2010 10:27:07)
…that’s [email protected]

Geordiegirl (15/07/2010 11:53:15)
PA did a great job Ronshirt but don’t be so bitter about the fact the journalists in the North east – both newspaper and broadcast – managed to get lots of fresh stuff every day despite the fact they had the worldwide media on their patch

Steve Dyson (15/07/2010 12:33:07)
I’ll get it right soon… I’m at [email protected]

Ronshirt (15/07/2010 12:48:39)
Not bitter, Geordiegirl, but quietly amused at the preening and self-congratulations. It’s their patch for goodness sake, they damn well should be coming up with the goods!

Do Ron Ron (15/07/2010 13:23:19)
Hey Ronshirt, don’t forget PA often relies on copy the other way.

Subbed Out (15/07/2010 16:32:43)
Talking of PA, as a freelance reporter I once agreed to supply them with stories from my patch. But I soon stopped. The cheapskates paid me £10 a story then flogged them on to the nationals for a bigger fee. Never again ! What a joke !

Paul (15/07/2010 16:51:29)
And let’s not even talk about some of the mistakes made by the national media; Sky called it Rothley for one afternoon and it took them an entire day to work out the county is called Northumberland not Northumbria.

Chris Youett, Esq, (16/07/2010 16:02:52)
Before the industry was conned into ditching hot metal at least 25 years too early, it was regarded as normal for any evening paper to publish top stories the same day as the main deadline was usually 3:00 pm (2:30
pm on Fridays).
I hope that the message is not lost on all the over-paid suits who are happy to scrap local presses for evening newspapers and then print overnight on the Planet Zog.
As ever, it is timely news stories that sell papers, not the world wide wait or low pay for journalists.

Biter (28/07/2010 15:54:44)
I’d love to hear about the best scoop these regionals came up with on the Moat story.
Sounds like the usual PR hot air to me.