Trinity Mirror Rollout Online Training for Journalists
as Major Websites Revamp Pushes Forward

 

The Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool Echo websites have been relaunched in the first stage of a major overhaul of Trinity Mirror’s regional newspaper websites which runs alongside web training for journalists.

The sites, which TM says will be more flexible allowing adaptation to meet local needs, will contain with breaking news coverage, video and audio content, extended blogging forums and user-generated content.

New features on www.liverpoolecho.co.uk and www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk include a prominent ‘Most Popular Stories’ panel on the homepage allowing users to contribute to the news agenda.

Users can also comment on key stories and air their views in improved forums, while the video, audio and photo galleries have been enhanced with a dedicated area of the site.

Following on from the Liverpool upgrades, the Newcastle Journal, the Evening Chronicle and the Evening Gazette in the north east will be relaunched in the coming months.

 

They will be followed by south Wales, north Wales, Huddersfield and the Scottish titles.  

Extensive user-testing and input from editors, advertising directors and national ad sales teams in a nine-month development process have ensured the revamped websites will be more user-friendly and intuitive to use, according to the publisher.

David Black, director of TM Regional Digital Media, said: “We are now well on our way to achieving our goal of publishing the leading sites in our local markets, complementing the strength of our market-leading print titles.

“The significant upgrade to our sites will further improve our online proposition and gives us a tremendous platform to grow our online reach and revenues locally.”

In conjunction with the new site designs an extensive training programme, which includes a series of week-long video journalism courses and a series of one-day multimedia workshops, has been launched to improve TM journalists' multimedia skills.

More than 70 journalists in our north west region attended the workshops, which will now be rolled out across the division.

Neil Benson, Regionals editorial director said: “Our multimedia activity has come a long way in the past 12 months.

“But it is not just about redesigning our sites. Ensuring our journalists are up to speed with these developments is integral to our strategy, and this is why we have put in place a comprehensive multi-media training programme.”

Across the regional divisions, TM is pioneering a ‘Multi-Media Champions’ scheme, led by head of multimedia Mike Hill, which aims to share best practice across the group and to feed in new ideas and initiatives.