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Newspaper’s live project captures 24 hours in city

A regional daily aimed to capture a snapshot of life in its city over 24 hours with a live online project.

The Press in York started its 24/7 project at 12am yesterday with a live blog on an ordinary day in the city.

The title invited readers to help them record life in York by sending in stories, observations and pictures to use on a special website page set up for the initiative.

And contributions to the live project, which was held on 24 July to tie in with the 24/7 theme, included tweets from businesses and readers who used the Twitter hashtag #york247, events happening in the city and stories that reporters were working on.

News editor Gavin Aitchison said: “We have run live articles in the past on individual big stories or on particular days, such as The Queen’s visit to York last year and during the severe floods last autumn.

“We have always been impressed with the level of enthusiasm and contributions from readers, and we came up with the idea of running a live story on an ordinary day in York, to capture a day in the life of the city.

“July 24 (24/7) seemed a logical day to try it, and we’ve been pleased with the response.

“If it goes well and captures the public’s imagination, then we may look to do it again on other days, or perhaps once a year, possibly giving people particular assignments to broaden the scope and to give a huge diversity of observations – from the early hours in a nightclub in the city centre, to the grandeur of tourist York by day, to the very different and difficult lives being lived by some of York’s more impoverished residents.”

The live blog can be viewed here.