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Online Journalism News

Lancashire Evening Post goes live for feature on UK pub industry

Posted: 19/05/08 By: Laura Oliver
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The Lancashire Evening Post (LEP) is to live streamed video and live blog for a feature on the state of the UK's pub industry.

The Post will live stream interviews with regulars and the landlord of The Black Horse pub in Friargate, Preston, to a special LEP Live section of its website between 12pm and 2pm tomorrow.

Live streaming service Qik will be used by the paper to broadcast video footage filmed on an N95 mobile phone, while live blogging tool CoverItLive will allow readers to ask questions and add their comments.

The project is the first live coverage of such an event hosted by a UK regional newspaper and follows similar experiments using the technology last week's from the Liverpool Daily Post's newsroom.

"I don't think any UK website has done the kind of thing we are planning to do tomorrow. We have never had live video on the site before - we would like to have done, but the technology hasn't been there," Martin Hamer, digital editor of the Johnston Press title, told Journalism.co.uk.

Hamer will be joined in the pub by a reporter and features writer from the paper, who will also produce content on the day's events for the print edition, as well as a journalist to oversee the camera work.

Back in the newsroom, a moderator will take charge of posts to the live blog, while one of the paper's senior web designers will manage the content on the website.

"Live video streaming online using a mobile phone is a major step forward in our ability as local community websites to provide hyper-local information in full audio-visual richness," Mark Woodward, group editorial content manager at Johnston Press, told Journalism.co.uk.

"Once the concept is proved then we will have the competitive advantage to be able to truly compete with anyone in the local markets we serve."

Depending on the outcome of tomorrow's coverage, Hamer said the next step for video on the site would be to develop from feature coverage to covering live events.

"If this goes well, we can show the rest of the industry that there is potential for live video in the near future," he said.

"With a handful of people over a two hour period, we can produce something that is exciting, dynamic and innovative, but at the same time of great interest to the public."

"We're acting as the eyes and ears of the public and offering them a window into that pub, as if they're there. They can ask questions, they can get involved - the only thing they can't do is order a pint and drink it."