I can’t help but have a fondness for the Manchester Evening News. Following months of difficult changes, and the loss of many talented journalists and photographers, it’s interesting to see that they picked up the top title at the 02 Media Awards for Greater Manchester and Lancashire held at Urbis in Manchester last week.

On Friday (the day where 39 staff left the paper), we saw a presentation by an ex-MEN staffer at TEDx. Sarah Hartley is a good friend of the agency and is a new head of digital for the Guardian. She spoke openly about the future of journalism and the challenges the craft faces following the growth in hyperlocal community news sites.

Amongst other examples, Sarah flagged the East Salford Direct TV project, (billed as the regional alternative to CNN) who deliver hyperlocal TV news over the Internet, as an example of how the face of journalism is changing.

Sarah talked about how the growth in community journalism represented a major challenge to the traditional regional paper, and discussed how the two could find a way to work together.

Although there is no magic wand, Sarah’s talk highlighted an article that appeared on Talk About Local, which reviewed what a community news team would do if they were presented with a shiny new journalist to bolster their team.

I’ve copied this directly from the site, and it makes interesting reading:

add capacity – we have a great volunteer team but we are mostly busy in the day time. There are loads of things i would like followed up with some persistent phone wrangling during office hours.

bit more bite – there are quite  few issues in a rough area I am loath to follow up for fear of upsetting neighbours (one of my volunteer contributors had 14 windows broken in a planning dispute by someone with an air rifle).  Would be nice to have someone at arms length to tackle more difficult stuff.

court and crime reporting – in general any specialist reporting where contempt and special rules apply.

town hall stuff – there is so much guff coming out of the town hall it is hard to keep up.  Volunteers just can’t go to all the meetings we have a life to lead.  PitsnPots in Stoke-On-Trent demonstrates that you can have a whole site just devoted to the council.  This isn’t just a capacity issue there are lots of special skills required here that I kind of assume a well trained journo will have or could bring from their parent – keeping track of big property developments, understanding the budget, declarations of interest, expenses, procurement etc

skills transfer – i can write ok but no one has ever shown me any basic tips for writing to get attention without being sensationalist and the basics of libel etc

build links – if the bins are being emptied badly in Midford as well as Little Snoring at the other end of the county is there a bigger picture from sticking the blogs together?  And in general just network things together a bit.

broker relationships to syndicate local content – i like it when the paper reuses my stuff, as long as they ask, which they do.  I publish it so that people can read it.  But it is childish that they don’t give me a link.  I don’t kid myself that they make any money from my stuff so i don’t expect to be paid.  Might be nice though if the local rag makes a donation to a local charity say for young people every time they lift a piece.

It’ll be 12 months before the next Media Awards, and it’s difficult to predict what the media landscape will be like. Who knows, perhaps some of those ex-MEN staffers will turn their hand to the hyperlocal community sites and even East Salford Direct TV might be in the running . . . .

Last Thursday I spent the day as a newshound at the Manchester Evening News.

Democracy had bid for the pleasure at Twestival last month and I was the lucky recipient of a day as a journalist with self confessed Blogger, journalist, foodie and social media junky Sarah Hartley.

I met Sarah bright and early at Urbis to take a peak at Channel M‘s Breakfast Show. I was amazed by the levels of calm in the studio; that was until we popped down to the gallery and heard what was going on behind the scenes and in everyone’s ears.

Following a quick dash across the city I met the very charming people at the Newsdesk then headed out to meet journalist Chris Osuh at the County Court.

After a morning learning about court reporting I returned for the 12.30 conference where the editors of each section share their stories for the next day’s paper.

Dianne Bourne of The Diary Page then injected some glamour into the day as the three of us went out for a lovely lunch at San Carlo (apparently a celeb favourite although sadly I didn’t spot any).

Back to it and a whistle-stop tour of the important people of the Newsroom including Business and Sports editors as well as the Sub Editors.

What struck me most was the way the whole newsroom is getting involved in providing online content alongside putting together a paper which is published three times a day.

Quick stop at the 4pm conference then off to the spectacular Great John Street Hotel with Dianne to meet Debbie Rush (Corrie’s Anna Windass) and her lovely family for a Mother’s Day feature.

The cakes that formed part of the afternoon-tea themed interview sustained me until 7.30, and 12 hours after I’d met Sarah I’d definitely got the full picture of life at the MEN.

“Reprinted” from the Manchester Evening News, February 5 2008, written by Jennifer O’Grady.

Reputation is created by what people say about you. It’s the first rule of public relations. And one which appears to have been forgotten by Manchester’s PR folk.

For its first 100 years of life, public relations was – in essence – a simple process; some bright chap wrote a press release, they dispatched it to select journalists and – if the journalist liked what they read – the story was printed, to be devoured by the masses.

Well, everything’s changed now. Yes, traditional media still matters but the wonderful world of the Internet has created millions of new writers. And there’s a lot more of them there are journalists.

So why does the majority of Manchester’s PR world completely ignore them?

There are 63m users of Facebook and in excess of 100m blogs worldwide. All of them carrying the writers’ varying opinions on the subjects that matter to them. They blog about the things they like. They post updates on Facebook about the things they hate. And, to the people that read these words, the opinions carry significant weight.

And the PR folk of Manchester? As a rule, they’re hoping that the client won’t notice this revolution. Because they don’t understand it perhaps?

Ordinary people can spread good and bad information about brands faster than any ad campaign, press release or sponsorship. If clients and agencies don’t engage with these new “citizen journalists” – then they’ve lost control over their brand.

So what’s your social media PR like then? A blog is a good first step but the bare minimum in 2008. What about a Facebook group? A MySpace profile? A social media newsroom? Ask your current PR agency about their plans for citizen media – and, with few exceptions, watch panic set in.

If the public isn’t the target of your public relations campaign – then wave goodbye to your reputation.