A regional daily has revealed a new focus on “brilliant original features” as the newspaper prepares to mark 130 years in business.

The South Wales Argus is increasing its features content in 2022 with a new camoaign called ‘Newport: Our City’.

The series aims to celebrate the people of Newport, as well as examine the challenges the city faces.

The fresh focus comes ahead of the Argus celebrating its 130th anniversary this coming May.

How the Argus launched the campaign at the start of the month

Editor Gavin Thompson told HTFP: “The South Wales Argus is long established as the number one local news provider for Newport and the surrounding Gwent region. That’s something we are proud of but not something we can take for granted.

“Breaking news and crime are the most read stories on our website, and both are important. But as the established local news provider – we’re celebrating our 130th birthday this year – we should do more than that.

“We want to tell the stories of our community, to celebrate the wonderful people and places but not to ignore the challenges too.

“Newport is the core of our patch. We started here and in the midst of the pandemic we moved back into the city centre in a bright new office, so I want us to have a real focus on the city this year. The Newport: Our City series is a way to channel that.”

So far, the series has included articles looking at the various developments proposed for the city, as well as a listicle of 21 inspiring local people.

Added Gavin: “Internally, it’s a way to focus the team’s attention on producing brilliant original features from our core patch and externally, it’s a way of highlighting that content to readers.

“A good example is the most recent piece by our newest reporter Ross Rondel, who has been out getting to know the Pill area of the city.

“His first piece focused on a successful dance school in the area, including some very honest reporting about the reputation the area has for drugs and prostitution but celebrating the great work the school has done.

“One of the lovely things so far is the articles have received largely positive comments from readers online, which we know often isn’t the case on our stories.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the stories the reporters involved in the project produce in the coming weeks.”