An editor has hailed the success of a start-up newspaper has proof of the demand for local community newspapers after the title marked its first anniversary.
The Oldham Reporter, run by Quest Media, has marked the one-year milestone this month along with rival Newsquest publication the Oldham Times.
Both titles, as well as the now-defunct Oldham edition of the Manchester Evening News, were founded following the closure of the town’s daily paper the Oldham Chronicle last summer.
The Chronicle itself has since been revived as a news website.
The Reporter, which is usually a 56-page publication, marked its anniversary with a 72-page edition featuring a 16-page schools supplement.
As well as the Reporter, Quest Media publishes the Tameside Reporter and Glossop Chronicle and additionally provides local news and news feature programmes for Tameside Radio.
Editor Nigel Skinner told HTFP: “Our Oldham Reporter edition has been well received by readers and businesses alike. There clearly is a market for local community newspapers like ours concentrating on providing good quality news at a grass roots level – and it’s something local businesses really want too.
“With one part-time freelance reporter and freelance photographer dedicated to covering Oldham news alone, plus our own reporting team for Tameside and Glossop, we have managed to forge good links with many local groups, organisations and schools.
“Plus because the areas we cover – Tameside and Glossop – sit close to Oldham, we already had a natural overlap for news, sport and advertising for Oldham which we’ve found is working well – both for news and sport reports and commercially for local businesses looking to reach a wider audience.
“Our news and sports format – we publish a minimum 10 pages of local sports news from across the areas we cover – is liked so we won’t be changing anything, but plan to continue offering more of the same.”
Nigel described the local elections back in May as one of the “highlights” of the past 12 months.
He added: “We offered every candidate standing in each ward across Oldham the chance to submit 200 words explaining why the electorate should vote for them and published their picture.
“This is something we have traditionally always offered in our publications across Tameside and Glossop – nobody else does – yet this is local democracy in action and exactly what local newspapers are all about and something that needs to be upheld – not least in this anniversary year of suffrage with so many historic leading ladies from our area who fought for the democratic right to vote.”
Quest has also recently been accepted within the BBC Local News Partnerships scheme, which will enable all of its titles to carry more news from local council and health body meetings from local democracy reporters.
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Congrats to everyone at the OR
there is,without doubt,a huge appetite across the uk for well written hyper local news papers providing the level of local interest stories and comment which the failing bigger publishers no longer provide.
By sheer complacency and arrogance in believing they had,and always would, the local paper market and so choosing to turn their focus from print to the mythical digital dollar they handed a huge and ready market to new publishers to open titles such as this one.
Local people want local news, to know what’s happening in their communities and what will and is affecting them,not top ten lists, old news lifted from social media or supplied page ready by the public and the type of generic space filler of no relevance which content chiefs use to fill templates on pages.
Good luck to Nigel and the team and to everyone starting their own publications across the county, it really is the future of regional publishing
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Local weekly news will always sell of it is in a QUALITY product. You need hard local news, local features, columnists who cause reaction and a photographic coverage of LOCAL events. Faces sell papers. No so called local website can compete, especially for photos. Digital offerings are hit and miss. Digital DOESN’T work for everything. Especially local news and photo coverage. The big boys have been tying the saves up in knots trying to make digital pay.. Get real folks.. There is no alternative to the wheel!!!
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