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Telegraph acts swiftly to sign up new minister

As the country was getting used to the coalition government, a quick-thinking newsroom set about getting the new education secretary on board its campaign to improve reading skills.

Within days of Michael Gove being installed, he had been contacted by the Grimsby Telegraph asking for his backing to a literacy campaign launched by the newspaper earlier this year.

Having already received the support of Labour predecessor Ed Balls, Gove quickly followed suit and spoke glowingly to the Telegraph about its As Easy as ABC literacy campaign which aims to improve reading standards in North East Lincolnshire.

Mr Gove said: “Nothing is more important than getting literacy right – children have to learn to read before they can read to learn. It’s fantastic that local organisations are getting together in Grimsby to promote literacy.”

The Telegraph launched the campaign in March after staff noticed a worrying trend in the stories they were covering.

News editor Lucy Wood explained: “It had been an issue on the radar for a while. Every so often the area’s poor literacy standards would be brought up as part of another story or discussion and it came to a point where we decided to do something about it.

“The reporting team at the Telegraph is working really hard to make this campaign a success and recognition from prominent people such as Mr Gove is important.”

The campaign was launched with the approval of former education secretary Mr Balls and the news team were determined to get the same sanction from the new coalition government.

Added Lucy: “Latest figures reveal that, in some of the more deprived wards in our authority area, up to a third of our adult population have inadequate literacy levels.

“So the long-running ABC campaign is about addressing these issues through a variety of ways, from reading workshops and the creation of a ‘living’ book to a joke competition for youngsters to make them think about words and their meanings.”

The newspaper is also working with local schools helping pupils to act like journalists and photographers and produce their own page in the Telegraph.

More on the campaign can be found at thisisgrimsby.co.uk/getreading.