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Weekly launches campaign to celebrate its town

A weekly paper has launched a campaign to lift the mood of its town by highlighting positive news from the area.

The Hastings Observer has started its ‘I Love Hastings’ drive to celebrate the town and its people throughout 2011 and shake off its negative reputation.

It is urging readers to contact it with good news from the area, such as charity events and the achievements of youngsters, and each week’s positive stories will be stamped with a special logo, while badges and car stickers are also planned.

The paper has launched the campaign after a string of bad news in the town over the last 12 months, including the fire at Hastings Pier, cuts in government funding, a continuing high unemployment rate and crime stories such as the sham marriage scandal.

  • The campaign was launched on the weekly’s front page.
  • Launching the campaign to readers, editor-in-chief Keith Ridley said: “What’s special about Hastings is the spirit of the people who live here. And for all the issues and challenges we face, it’s so easy to fall in love with the place.

    “Community matters here and we want to reflect that. The Observer can’t hide from some of the sadder and serious stories, but we promise to help you feel good about this very special town whenever we can.

    “Let’s celebrate all that’s special about Hastings in 2011. Please help us to do so.”

    The title says it still has a responsibility to report on bad news in the town but it will highlight the reasons why local people should be proud of Hastings, such as the work of volunteers who help out the local community.

    An editorial in the paper said: “Here at the Observer we realise the role a local newspaper can play in lifting the mood of a town.

    “We will still report the crime as and when it happens and no paper in the country would dream of imposing a blanket ban on bad news. A paper has a responsibility to report everything that goes on – positive or negative.

    “But what we can – and will do in 2011 – is highlight the very best of local achievement and flag up the many reasons to be cheerful here in our unique corner of East Sussex.”

    15 comments

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    • January 17, 2011 at 10:25 am
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      This is a very brave move…I did my journalism training in Hastings in 2001, and the town was a real hole. The week before the course started, local retired vicar Ronald Glazebrook was murdered and his body dismembered. Hastings inherited a lot of Brighton’s social problems (including people) when the latter cleaned up its act in the late Nineties. The Hastings Observer should be campaigning for better quality housing,improved road links and a campaign fund to rebuild the pier – this would make people love the town

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    • January 17, 2011 at 10:53 am
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      We are already running a Save Our Pier campaign, which has been particularly successful. Hastings is a great place to live and work. We just want to make the positive stories a bit more obvious.

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    • January 17, 2011 at 11:00 am
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      I too studied journalism in Hastings, and while my peers initially felt the same as you James, I was able to show them the better sides of the town. It’s easy to dismiss the place but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface. It has many problems, but there’s plenty to crow about too.

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    • January 17, 2011 at 11:36 am
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      @James “The town’s a hole”? You have to wonder how far and wide people who make comments like that have traveled in the UK. The town’s not a hole. Much of it is very pretty, it has a great community and character, and a rich history. Yes it has depriva

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    • January 17, 2011 at 1:39 pm
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      Pfft. If Hastings is so damned hot, what happened in 1066 then, eh?

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    • January 17, 2011 at 2:43 pm
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      I’m a little bit annoyed by this, a local company has been running an I heart Hastings promotion for several years now, and the Hastings Observer is picking it up and then passing it off as its own. It has gone from a genuine sentiment to a paper pushing for sales. Not happy with that at all.

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    • January 17, 2011 at 3:27 pm
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      @Wil Cornish. Not quite sure what you mean by cashing in. @JW hit the nail on the head. A lot of readers would like us to be more positive so we decided to flag up the many positive stories already in the paper each week. As far as campaign names go, t

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    • January 17, 2011 at 3:29 pm
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      Note: The above should read: “I remember off the top of my head”. I do remember someone locally flogging I Heart Hastings t-shirts a while back which we featured. But that was a couple of years ago. If anything, your point shows why our campaign is needed. People very rarely tell us about their good, positive news.

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    • January 17, 2011 at 3:30 pm
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      Ruddy hell. The joys of filling in these forms. For the second time, it should read: “Which I CAN’T remember off the top of my head”. I know, I know, standards in journalism etc etc…

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    • January 17, 2011 at 3:40 pm
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      Well done The Observer. As a former reporter on The Observer (1990-93) I remember the town with great fondness. Lots of `hard´news thanks to the less savoury incomers from the big towns, but lots of warm hearted people with good news to tell as well. Thanks to our editor, Russell Clayton, both got covered. Wil – what´s the problem with jumping on a bandwagon if it pushes sales and maybe safeguards jobs?

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    • January 17, 2011 at 5:06 pm
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      Hastings Reporter: “We are already running a Save Our Pier campaign, which has been particularly successful” – it burnt down, how is that successful?!?

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    • January 18, 2011 at 9:11 am
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      @It’snotimportant. It was already shut when the pier fire hit. Our campaign was lobbying the council to change its policy and begin working more with the community trust. They have started doing that and the hope is it will now re-open.

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    • January 18, 2011 at 2:43 pm
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      I appreciate Hastings has its good points, but they are few and far between. Anyone who has driven from London to Hastings knows it is a nightmare – a mixture of single track roads, dual carriageways and other mishmashs – not conducive to good transport links and therefore good business. I remember using the gents’ toilet in Morrisons in Hastings, and wondering why it only had a UV light to illuminate it – it transpired it was to deter heroin addicts from shooting up! The seafront has some amazing houses, but most are boarded up. The hotel next to my digs in Warrior Square was used to house asylum seekers awaiting a decision. The month after we finished the course, the Daily Mail exposed it as a base for illegal workers. Tourists flock to Brighton, they definitely DON’T flock to Hastings, as it is a shadow of its former self.

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    • January 18, 2011 at 6:09 pm
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      The latest Hastings Observer campaign is a variation of somthing that was tried some years ago. Locals will fondly recall the Talk Up Hastings campaign. Its launch formed the centrepiece on page 3 … surrounded by copious stories of murder, rape, pillage and drug dealing. The campaign was short-lived. The latest worthy campaign sounds like a New Year resolution. Let’s hope it’s not a distant memory at the end of February.

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    • January 19, 2011 at 1:11 pm
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      @James Cowling. I think you might find things have changed. The council has a popular local scheme called Grotbusters, which has helped clear the seafront roads of the boarded up homes. The Adelphi Hotel you refer to no longer houses asylum seekers, cr

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