Thurrock celebrates good news..not everywhere does..

Sunday Comment

By Michael Casey

FOR the last three weeks, I have been busy starting our second on-line newspaper, www.yourharlow.com. The first year, as we found in Thurrock in 2008, is all about building up the mailing list.

But one of our first challenges is finding the good news. We note that the one surviving local paper in Harlow has close to 30% of its stories wrapped around crime.

It appears to be a town of 80,000 people, starved of good news. That is where we come in and that is our challenge.

Compare that to the Thurrock Enquirer this week that has just 5%. The veteran editor, Neil Speight, has always had the community at the heart of his papers.

Then again, they may get criticised a lot but Thurrock Council does send out a lot of press releases. Not all councils are the same. Yes it helps that they have a former editor of the Thurrock Gazette, Andy Lever, in their team.

This leads us to compare TBC’s output with Harlow District Council. So far, in three weeks, we have just one solitary press release. We will be taking that up with them.

We sat at a cabinet meeting in Harlow where there was at least four good news stories. Not one press release. We sat at a Thurrock Council cabinet meeting. Over the next few days, we received ten good news press releases.

Of course, it may be down to the trained eye of Mr Lever.

It has been easy in Thurrock as there are so many people ready to tell us about their good news. That is why it is such a rich quarry of news. And it is another reason for Thurrock to be proud of itself.

The Good News course run by ngage and Thurrock Celebrates was started on the back of the adverse publicity Thurrock received as “the most miserable town in Britain.”

Indeed, it was good to be joined by Thurrock Enquirer editor, Neil Speight and Thurrock Council’s Senior Communications Manager, Andy Lever in speaking at the two day seminar.

It was a pleasure to be there and we wish Andrew Blakey all the best with his Thurrock Celebrates plans.

Tim Harrold of Thurrock Celebrates said afterwards, “I’ve learnt some valuable tips and hints on how to get a message across in a clear way but, most importantly, I must remember that my initial target audience is the journalist who reads any press release I write! We would like to thank Neil, Andy and Michael for passing on their wisdom.”

Andrew Blakey of Thurrock Celebrates said, “We hope by learning these skills more good news stories from around the borough will be published in the media, because Thurrock is good news. The tutors were so supportive and completely sold on Thurrock being a great place to be.”

I just think it is worth remembering that Thurrock should pat itself on the back and celebrate the amount of good news it already spreads. (Yes we know there is plenty to scrutinise as well(.

We face a mountain to climb in getting the good news out in Harlow but we have Thurrock to thank in providing the template.