News of an MP’s death was broken by a regional daily website, scooping its local and national rivals to the news.
The Oldham Evening Chronicle revealed the death of Michael Meacher after he passed away last Wednesday, after securing comments from his office manager.
After receiving a call about Mr Meacher, the Chronicle called the veteran Labour politician’s Oldham constituency office around 1pm, where a member of staff confirmed the 75-year-old had died suddenly after a period of illness.
Reporter Alex Carey then wrote a longer story following a conversation with Peter Dean, Mr Meacher’s office manager.
Other members of the Chronicle news team assisted with gathering reaction and biography information on the Labour MP, who held roles in various Labour governments over three decades and was a supporter of the party’s current leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Within three and a half hours of online publication, the first Chronicle website report received 14,107 hits which rose to over 20,000 in the following hours.
Tributes came from national and local Labour Party figures including Mr Corbyn, former leader Neil Kinnock and Oldham Council leader Jim McMahon.
In its Thursday print edition, pictured above, the Chronicle published five pages of news and reaction to Mr Meacher¹s death, followed by further coverage in Friday’s edition.
Other features were also published on the Chronicle website.
Deputy editor Bob Young said: “We had to move fast once we confirmed the news.
“Staff worked tirelessly to get the work done and the story highlighted how being close to contacts across the community pays-off for reporters in the news industry.”
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This has raised the bar on the definition of ‘scoop’ as we know it.
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Not to belittle the hard work of the Chronicle team, but it would be a very poor do indeed if the local paper DIDN’T know first about the death of one of its stalwart MPs.
Far from being a ‘scoop’, this is exactly what I would expect to happen in the circumstances.
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yes, it’s a worrying train of thought that they consider this a scoop. In days gone by you were expected never to miss this sort of story on the local patch and got a rollicking if you did. Now it seems a source of congratulation if you managed to get it.
As for the “worked tirelessly”. Back in the cliche box please.
All the same they did a decent job. That’s all.
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Five pages about an MP’s passing? Slow news day in Oldham then…
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We really should talk about the kerning on that page…
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