Celebrating Great Journalism - 3 May

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.

Yesterday’s local elections?

Get the strong coffee ready - it’s local election time! In years gone by we’d see bleary-eyed reporters recovering from pulling all-nighters, watching votes being counted in town halls and sports centres.

These days counts are often carried out the next day, and in some cases even over the weekend. But the need for coverage and scrutiny remains as strong as ever.?

While local democracy is a cornerstone of our journalism, we also face the challenge of engaging readers in the need to vote, with many parts of the country seeing turnout of less than 30% at local polls.?

Around the country in recent weeks our newsrooms have been holding hustings to ensure candidates are publicly held to account.

In the North East, where a ‘North of Tyne’ mayor is being traded for one serving the whole of the region, candidates gathered in our Newcastle hub for a hustings chaired by Rob Parsons , editor of our Northern Agenda politics newsletter. It became an episode of the podcast that you can listen to here .

Back in January, the Journal billed 2024 as the ‘year of the North East’ ahead of its new devolution deal. This week, the Journal urged people to make the most of the new mayor - by making sure they turned out to vote.

In the East Midlands, a mayor is being elected for the first time. NottinghamshireLive teamed up with local TV station NottsTV to hold a hustings which was broadcast live on NottsTV and via Facebook on DerbyshireLive and NottinghamshireLive. Both streams were watched by thousands of people.

Our Manchester Evening News office hosted the Greater Manchester Mayoral hustings recently, with a hand-picked audience, including campaigners and local students grilling the candidates for over an hour, hosted by editor Sarah Lester . The full hustings can be found on YouTube.

In Birmingham, editor Graeme Brown and politics and people editor Jane Haynes hosted candidates on a live-streamed virtual hustings, watched across BirminghamLive and CoventryLive. Lasting two hours, it covers a lot of ground.

Jane also made headlines last week when the Labour mayoral candidate’s office confirmed her grilling on fighting poverty resulted in a change in the Labour manifesto for yesterday’s elections - a great example of local journalism in action .

Party Games

This week also saw the launch of Party Games, a new show from our Reach Studios team. Hosted by the Mirror's Political Correspondent, Sophie Huskisson, the show sees her sit down with MPs and interview them while playing a series of fun party games.?

The new series was a Studio production, with thanks to Eugene Sowah , Lydia O'Malley and Shabir Noorzai for the filming and editing, and Nile Evans for the brilliant design work.?

The series will run for seven episodes, released every Monday at 6pm on the Mirror's YouTube channel and across our other social media platforms. Clips from the show are distributed across social channels across National and regional titles.?

Co-op Live Arena

Last week we highlighted the M.E.N.’s coverage of the new Co-Op Live Arena, which saw the team pivot from a detailed what’s on plan into breaking news mode as chaos hit the opening.?

The M.E.N. team stuck with the story and revealed every twist and turn over the week, culminating in coverage of further delays just minutes before the first show after part of an air conditioning unit fell to the ground.?

Cheryl Fergison’s cancer battle

Finally, OK! Magazine this week secured an exclusive interview with former EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison as she opened up about her long and painful battle with cancer. She also spoke openly about an addiction to self harm and her hopes of maybe returning to EastEnders one day. The stories appeared across OK! and the Mirror and were followed up by other publications.

Thanks for reading, we’ll be back with more highlights next week so please subscribe and share this newsletter with your network.