Celebrating Great Journalism - 21 June

Welcome to our weekly round-up of impactful journalism from across our 120+ trusted brands, from national titles like the Mirror, Express, Daily Record and Daily Star, to local brands like MyLondon, BelfastLive and the Manchester Evening News, as well as our US-based brands.

Who could ignore the two big stories of this week - the Euro 2024 championships, and the ongoing UK General Election campaigns. The challenge for our newsrooms is to make the most of both when other news organisations are also devoting a lot of coverage to them.

The UK General Election

In Liverpool this week, the Echo sought to put into context the impact 14 years of Tory policy has had on the city, using data to guide readers through it. Liverpool: Austerity City is an immersive storytelling project published earlier this week, created by political editor Liam Thorp data editor Annie Gouk, Adam Walker and Marianna Longo.

On the election in Merseyside, Liam Thorp and Northern Agenda editor Rob Parsons, teamed up to look at Southport, which is tipped to move to Labour for the first time ever . Rob has been visiting various constituencies in the North for his newsletter, including Rishi Sunak’s Richmond in North Yorkshire. This week’s poll predicts a Tory loss in Richmond and, as Rob’s podcast revealed , there is little love for the PM on home turf.

The Manchester Evening News has pledged to ‘vox’ in every one of the 27 constituencies we cover. Our reporters are expected to speak to different types of people, have a significant discussion, and provide content full of local knowledge.

Examples include: “It’s one of the coolest places to live in the UK but some people in this Greater Manchester area feel left behind” , ‘“I’m not giving them 30 seconds of my time” ? and ‘The trendy Manchester suburb that could lose people to Didsbury and Withington’ .

The emerging themes are disillusionment, disenfranchisement, the cost of living, traffic/public transport and division within constituencies between rich and poor areas.

Daily Record Political Editor, Paul Hutcheon, got an exclusive sneak peek at the Labour manifesto and revealed an extra ￡150m coming from Westminster to be targeted specifically at dealing with poverty.

5,000 Voices

Our 5,000 Voices project stepped up this week, with around 40 journalists going out every day to ask people what they think about key issues and the political questions of the day. From asking if Rishi Sunak could live on ￡75 a week (in Wigan) to why people in Tamworth feel they have never had it so bad , new video vox pops are appearing on our sites and social channels daily.

Bristol police misconduct hearings

Our team in Bristol are again standing up for journalism by fighting to get access to police officer misconduct hearings.

BristolLive successfully overturned similar decisions twice, but this time the the case went ahead with anonymity in place, sparking this hard-hitting editorial . It's an important issue and one the BristolLive team will continue to fight - our readers will be worse off if we don’t.

On the theme of campaigning, after a long spell of campaigning by the Daily Record, MSPs voted recently to introduce buffer zones stopping anti-abortion activists protesting outside clinics .

The Sunday Mail also made a breakthrough in the long-running mystery of the identity of the infamous Scottish serial killer known as Bible John, naming a new suspect with the help of DNA testing .

Euro 2024

Euro 2024 has already delivered some standout examples of our journalism. Yesterday, the Mirror’s Ryan Taylor wrote an eye-opening piece about what England fans could expect off the pitch in the city of Frankfurt .

Yesterday’s draw with Denmark was live blogged by the Mirror, with our team on the ground filing live to readers in the build up to a match that has left many England fans frustrated.

For the Daily Record, roving Euro reporter Ryan Carroll has been embedded with the Tartan Army in Germany, providing daily coverage of Scotland's Euros campaign . Record football writers Keith Jackson and Scott McDermott are proving a big hit in Germany with the Record's daily football show Hotline Live .

Express investigations editor Zak Garner-Purkis has also been in Germany getting some fan-based content. Zak and photographer Rowan Griffiths were at the scene when trouble flared before England's game with Serbia, delivering great pictures and quotes from witnesses. ?

Zak has written first-person pieces on what he's observed and also produced lighter pieces - such as this one on German scarf sellers slashing prices on half-and-half scarves as England fans won't buy them.

The Mirror had an exclusive chat with Paul Gascoigne in his Euro 96 shirt, with more of the interview still to be broadcast. You can see highlights on the Mirror’s Facebook here and here .

Arsenal and Everton great Kevin Campbell died at the age of 54 at the weekend. This tribute by Everton reporter Chris Beesley is a beautiful read.

Taylor Swift hits Liverpool and Cardiff

Big news for the Liverpool Echo when Taylor Swift arrived in Liverpool last week. Highlights included pictures from fans outside the ground, a non-stop live blog, and a Whatsapp community set up for the even so Swifties could get the latest news as it happened.

By Tuesday, Taylor was in Cardiff - and WalesOnline was ready. There was an extraordinary amount of planning with more than 130 stories published with the Taylor Swift tag, including the loyal Swifties who had travelled from across the world and the first fan in the queue.

The MyLondon team now eagerly awaits her arrival in London.

Thanks for reading, we’ll be back with more highlights next week.