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Political rallies provide web hits boost for daily

The Bolton News attracted a nine-fold increase in visitors to its website after providing live video-streaming of last weekend’s rallies by the English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism.

As thousands of rival protesters clashed on the town hall square, a team of reporters, photographers and senior editorial staff provided up-to-the-minute web coverage.

In what the paper is claiming as a first for a regional title, the entire protest was streamed live to its website by a camera crew on the roof of a shopping centre.

It generated a nine-fold increase in daily unique users last Saturday from 6,000 to 54,000, while hundreds of people also signed up to the daily paper’s Twitter feed to get updates.

One News reporter was granted exclusive access to Greater Manchester Police’s operational command centre, while another was embedded with a police riot squad.

The result was eight hours of intensive coverage – with a picture gallery, analysis, rolling reports, reader interaction via the forums and standalone videos.

The news team also worked throughout Sunday to put together a special edition which included a wraparound front page and back page featuring a striking image of the the two rival groups divided by police.

The Monday edition also carried six inside news pages, with analysis, first person pieces and a series of in-depth news leads.

Editor Ian Savage said: “This just goes to prove that strong local journalism by professional and dedicated staff produces excellent results, whether in print or online.

“The teamwork was phenomenal this weekend to cover what was one of the biggest events in recent history for Bolton. I can’t thank everyone enough for their hard work.”