Local community news running on ‘Churnalism’

At SCIP’s last Community Reporters’ meet-up, we were treated to an insight into BrightonandHoveNews.org, a local news site set up by journalist Frank Le Duc. It showed the power of a so-called ‘churnalism’ approach to sharing community news and rang bells for others involved in running local community newsletters and websites, including SCIP’s Training Manager David Guthrie.

Frank Le Duc has worked for 25 years as journalist at newspapers ranging from the Thurrock Gazette to The Times. He left his post as deputy editor of The Argus on New Years Eve 2008 during a bout of cost cuts at the newspaper and knew he had to move on to new pastures and fast. 

During his period of unemployment Frank set up BrightonandHoveNews.org. The idea arose one night in the pub, but instead of being all talk and no action, it evolved into something beyond his expectations. The website aims to provide breaking news from across Brighton and Hove and often beats the local newspaper The Argus to it.

The site receives thousands of hits a day and is becoming increasing popular as the central hub of news for Brighton and Hove. It doesn’t currently take advertising so the three-strong team of journalists survive on a passion for the ‘scoop’ to keep the site alive.

Now employed as editor-in-chief of Northcliffe subsidiary East Surrey and Sussex News and Media Ltd, Frank finds himself posting news to the site during his lunch breaks and after work in the evenings.

The power of ‘churnalism’

According to Frank it’s ‘churnalism’ not journalism that keeps the stories flooding in. And he’s not about to give it up anytime soon.

Frank sources stories from his contacts and the countless press release and other news issued on a daily basis across the city, including residents’ associations and local action team websites. Turning this information into articles for the Brighton and Hove News site can takes a matter of minutes.

What does it mean for community newsletters?

David Guthrie, Training manager at SCIP teaches on SCIP’s courses for building and running a local community website. He also runs the Hollingdean News – the website for his community.

He’s very impressed with the Brighton & Hove News site:

“It’s an excellent example of how blogging can be fast, flexible and responsive to local news and issues.  I'd love to know how the team get some of their information - sometimes they're ahead of the Argus and local BBC outlets! It is a little patchy occasionally but then there's a lot of information out there."

As the producer of a local community website, he noticed Brighton and Hove News tapping into local networks when they subscribed to a feed from the Hollingdean site. The Hollingdean News On-line is built in WordPress and the using the excellent stats tools he saw that Brighton & Hove News was using their posts as one of their news sources.

More of the same to come

Today, when the future for printed news is looking uncertain, maybe we should take a leaf out of Frank Le Duc’s book and look to the Internet for a lesson in sharing news. We are in the midst of a revolution in the media economy and this poses in interesting junction for journalists.

Journalism is the information and newspapers are the means of distribution. The death of newspaper does not signify the demise of Journalism. The potential for online news is one where journalism can become more democratic and reflective, with sources directly linked in.

The ongoing ‘churn’ of stories being repurposed and published elsewhere is fed by interlinking websites and other social media that is really exciting for the future. Tools like WordPress enable and encourage this interlinking and allow individual organisations to get their own messages and information out but also contribute a broader network of community and social communication.

SCIP’s use of WordPress as the core tool in our website building training courses illustrates how new free tools can offer an excellent way for small community and voluntary groups to achieve a web presence.