Celebrating Great Journalism - 25 October

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.

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by Jon Livesey, Content Hub Director, and explores how our national titles have delivered impactful but sensitive coverage of Liam Payne’s death, and three examples of cutting-edge journalism from our team in Manchester.

The aftermath of Liam Payne’s death

Just over a week ago, the world was shocked by the tragic news that former One Direction member Liam Payne had fallen to his death from the balcony of his hotel room in Argentina.

Our newsrooms responded with energy and dynamism, but also took great care to ensure their coverage was responsible, respectful and sensitive.

The Mirror was first to break the news on social media, outpacing both UK and US outlets, thanks to the quick reactions of Online Editor Anthony Bond, Executive Editor Jane Lavender, Deputy News Editor Matt Atherton, Homepage Editor Chris Mallet, Senior Showbiz Reporter Susie Knox, and US Mirror’s Josh Taylor, who all helped confirm the news and make it live quickly.

Assistant Showbiz Editor Dan Bird’s breaking article quickly followed. Social Media Editor Hannah Ballantyne expertly managed the social distribution and got the story live before any other UK or US publisher.?

In the days following, United States Editor Chris Bucktin brought in key details from Argentina and delivered a touching piece about Liam’s dad, with video. On the print-focused side, Night Editor Neil Gallagher and Executive Night Editor Mark Urwin, plus Associate Chief Sub Editor Paul Jollands, worked swiftly to get it in the next day’s paper.

The Express also utilised Foreign Content Specialist Maria Ortega’s multilingual skills to unearth several follow-up lines, which led to a large boost in audience.

Over on the Star, Deputy Editor-in-Chief (Digital), Andy Gilpin’s team went the extra mile to cover the story comprehensively.

Feature Writer Liam McInerney worked into the early hours with Assistant Editor Richard Brown. The team aimed to answer the questions everyone was asking and came up with strong, insightful lines, from inside the hotel room to Liam’s final 36 minutes, and the grim real meaning of the police statement to the chilling premonitions before Liam’s death.

The OK! Magazine team also worked hard to deliver original and exclusive content. This first-person piece, from the perspective of Tony Cowell, brother of Simon and Liam’s friend of 15 years, was sensitively pulled together by Deputy Group Editor-in-Chief, Karen Cross. Weekend Editor Peter Hart, who worked with Liam from his first days of fame, drew on his own experiences to pen another unique, insightful first-person piece.

Fatal train crash in Wales

Earlier this week, the WalesOnline team did an admirable job reporting on a fatal crash involving two trains in rural Mid Wales.

Editor David James praised the local newsdesk and central Overnights team, whose members worked collaboratively on the breaking story. After Reporter Rob Dalling stood up the reports and ran initial updates, Reporter Phoebe Tonks and Overnights Editor Zasha Whiteway-Wilkinson kept a live blog running through the night, including breaking the news just after 2am that 15 were in hospital and a man had died. The WalesOnline team continued the coverage throughout Tuesday.

Cutting edge journalism in Manchester

The Manchester Evening News, meanwhile, delivered three examples of cutting edge journalism this week.

Firstly, continuing their unrivalled coverage of the Manchester Arena Bomb, the team published this article by Crime Reporter John Scheerhout after a long Freedom of Information battle. John’s fight began after the third and final report of the Manchester Arena said the trustees of the charity running Didsbury Mosque, attended by bomber Salman Abedi and his family, displayed 'a form of willful blindness' to the radical Islamist ideology being trumpeted by some at the mosque. The boss of the trust gave 'unreliable' evidence, it said.

John asked the Charity Commission (CC) for a copy of its action plan, drawn up in the wake of the bombing, but his FOI was subsequently turned down. Undeterred, John asked for an internal review, where the CC upheld its own decision. So he took it to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) which ruled in John’s favour and the CC was forced to hand over a redacted version of the action plan which formed the basis of the story.

Secondly, Health Reporter Helena Vesty played a key role in another quest for justice.

Earlier this year, she wrote about the separate cases of two men with terminal cancer being denied a payout by their life insurance companies because of smallprint in their policies.

Despite paying in for more than a decade they were told their policies were not valid because there was less than 18 months left to run on them. Helena shared the findings of her investigation with the men's MPs, one of whom, Rebecca Long Bailey, brought an early day motion in Parliament on the subject. You can read about it here.

The M.E.N. also committed to covering every single person who appeared in court after the summer riots. They pulled them all together this week in this rogues gallery.

Pride of Britain Awards

The 25th annual Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards took place on Monday night, and was broadcast on ITV last night. Hosted by Carol Vorderman and Ashley Banjo.

A huge effort also goes into the editorial offering that supports the event.

The Mirror’s coverage struck the perfect tone, and Adele Jennings’ digital cover for socials ahead of the ITV broadcast added extra sparkle.

The POB tag was the 6th most popular on the Mirror site this week, with content racking up an impressive number of page views in the last seven days. The top written piece was this Peter Andre article.

Special recognition goes to the Secure team, who did a brilliant job distributing POB content across newsletters and WhatsApp. On Instagram, the red carpet videos pulled in a record number of views, including this Facebook interview with Peter Andre and this TikTok video with Chloe Burrows.

Stephen Jones and the Picture Desk for produced brilliant homepage banners and features on the night, and the production team delivered three emotive spreads, with Columnist Ros Wynne Jones highlighting POB winners on her Real Britain page.

Outstanding exclusives

Finally, Express Investigations Editor Zak Garner-Purkis conducted an incredible interview with a notorious ex-gangster who planned the biggest mass shooting in UK history. It features in the first episode of the second series of Zak's explosive Youtube show, On The Edge.

The Express’s Deputy Political Editor Martyn Brown also secured an exclusive, no-holds-barred interview with Kemi Badenoch. In her own home, the Tory leadership frontrunner laid out her plans in a direct appeal to Express readers.

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