The best of the Live Network, April 26

As long as I’ve worked in regional journalism, I’ve been profoundly impressed and, if I’m really honest, intimidated by the standard of the Liverpool Echo ’s coverage of the Hillsborough tragedy. Through generations of staff in that newsroom, and through various stages of one of the most devastating scandals in British sporting and policing history, what has constantly shone through is the commitment of the full team to fully telling a defining story for the city of Liverpool.

I think that’s why I loved this so much, which featured contributions from journalists who’ve worked on the story from the time the disaster took place in 1989, to the present day 35 years later. It’s a fascinating read about the challenges faced by the families in their fight for justice, but also the challenges faced by journalists in their efforts to do justice to those involved. As David Bartlett says within it: “There are moments that come up in your career when you know that what you're doing is really, really important. To Liverpool, there aren't many things that are more important than this. I felt that weight on me.” It’s a fitting way to mark 35 years since Hillsborough, and 35 years of helping the people of the city carry that weight. Well done to all involved for what they’ve done and continue to do.

There were shocking scenes in Carmarthenshire this week as news broke of a disturbing incident inside a secondary school in Ammanford. Patch reporter Rob Harries was quickly at the location, while photographer Jon Myers was diverted from a job 20 miles away. With the school on lockdown, pupils shut inside, and rumours circulating widely about what had taken place, education editor Abbie Wightwick was able to use her contacts to speak to governors and establish that there had indeed been a multiple stabbing, allowing this key line to be reported with confidence. As always, as the local publisher in highly emotional and sensitive situations like this, it’s more important that our coverage is responsible and measured, and WalesOnline’s coverage was, in the words of one local person who contacted the team, “exemplary of great journalism”.

DevonLive was another of our teams who this week had to cover news of a violent incident at a school. On this occasion, Paul Greaves was in court to tell the troubling story of a 16-year-old boy accused of trying to kill people in a hammer attack at his private school dormitory in Tiverton. Court reporting is never easy but the stakes are always higher when dealing with a high-profile and distressing case involving young people, but Paul’s coverage stood out for both its sensitivity and storytelling, finding the crucial balance between bringing the horror of the incident to life in a captivating manner while never crossing the line in terms of detail or taste.

In Manchester, the MEN team’s meticulous planning for the opening of the new Coop Live Arena was forced into a dramatic change of direction when its opening nights had to be cancelled at the 11th hour because of delays to construction work and safety sign-offs. A detailed content plan covering seating plans, travel and parking options, bag policy, banned items, and features on the new venue’s neighbouring residents - which include Manchester City - was already in place when the news broke while the team were reviewing the last test event that thousands of ticket-holders had had to be turned away. Stephen Topping explained to readers exactly what had gone wrong for the Rick Astley gig, but bigger news emerged that the arena’s two big opening nights - headlined by Peter Kay - would have to be postponed. The team were quickly on the case with reaction from James Holt , revised ticket information from Jenna Campbell and live updates from Ashlie Blakey , while a special report from Neal Keeling , Joseph Timan and Stephen Topping used well-placed sources to lift the lid on an embarrassing saga for a flagship new venue that will (when it’s eventually ready) become Europe’s biggest indoor arena.

Staying with what’s on, and I defy you to read this joyous review from WalesOnline’s Abbie Wightwick of a food festival in an idyllic coastal woodland and not want to go there immediately. As well as setting the scene for readers, Abbie detailed everything she ate (along with pictures), provided a full list of all the vendors available, and also put together a three-minute video together that has been viewed more than 17,000 times.

May’s local elections are nearly on us, and with a General Election coming later in the year, several of our brands have been doing some excellent work establishing themselves as a focal point for political debate in their regions. In Plymouth, an increasingly bitter campaign is already breaking out on doorsteps, and also the pages of PlymouthLive and the Plymouth Herald, where Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak have traded op-eds about the future of the city's dockyard and naval base. And in the East Midlands, weeks of planning came together when NottinghamshireLive and DerbyshireLive teamed up with Nottingham Trent University and Notts TV to host hustings for the East Midlands mayoral election in front of a live studio audience of readers, students and other invited guests? at NTU’s Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies. Students operated the cameras and worked in the gallery throughout the debate, and got involved with the media huddle afterwards, watching agenda editor Oliver Pridmore and photographer Joseph Zielinski (Raynor) at work. Around 7,000 people watched the hustings, with numerous lines emerging from the debates. The MEN was another of our brands to host a hustings, welcoming mayoral candidates to Chadderton to take questions from a specially selected audience.

One issue likely to come up on the doorsteps for candidates in both elections will be the issue of bank closures that have left many communities without any branches at all. On KentLive, Mary Harris visited Paddock Wood, where the closure of the local NatWest outlet in July will signal the end of any banks in the town, to tell the story of the parts of the community feeling left behind by the mass switch to internet banking.

Finally, one of the most engrossing football matches of this season or perhaps any other was Coventry City’s remarkable semi-final loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup on Sunday. With a baffling array of comebacks, disallowed goals and penalty misses to make sense of, I enjoyed Andy Turner’s clear-headed ability to pick the bones out of what we’d just seen amid an excellent package of content on CoventryLive.

Before I finish, a big and belated congratulations to our winners and highly commended nominees at last week’s Regional Press Awards. It was great to see so many of you there, and a huge well done in particular to Conor Gogarty of WalesOnline for picking up both the scoop of the year and the specialist journalist of the year award, and to the team at the MEN for their unwavering campaigning on Awaab’s Law, which was rightly awarded campaign of the year.