Why MEN is opening up 'live newsroom' to readers

The Manchester Evening News live-streamed its editorial conference today as part of a one-off event designed to share the workings of a modern newsroom with its audience.

MEN has also published its daily 'news list' and will be demonstrating how it works with new technology such as Google Glass and drone footage, which will be used to produce panoramic video of the city.

In addition to its already existing live newsroom blog, the outlet is also posting video updates via Google+ Hangouts alongside Q&As with key editorial staff and insights into day-to-day processes such as how stories are created.



Digital innovation editor Paul Gallagher explained that part of the motivation behind Manchester Live was to "demonstrate a degree of transparency and openness and engage with people".

"We thought it was a good time for us to try and show people just how the newsroom operates," he added.

"We think a lot of people would be quite surprised to see the extent to which we are focused on digital audiences and the extent to which our activity is moulded by audience data."

The Manchester Live event comes just a few weeks after the MEN underwent a significant reorganisation of its newsroom, which Gallagher explained saw "not only the seats changing but also the job titles changing for many of the senior staff".

As part of a wider move by Trinity Mirror Regionals to 'newsroom 3.1', the traditional set-up of the editorial floor, with separate desks for different teams such as news, sport and features, has been replaced by "three key pillars of content".

The three "pillars" are 'live', which is mainly news but also some sport; 'agenda' based around agenda-setting content such as health, politics and education, and also coverage of Manchester City and Manchester United; and "niche" which includes business, entertainment and What's On.

Each area is led by an executive editor, formerly associate editors, with content shaped around traffic spikes and other audience analytics from Chartbeat.

For example, 'agenda' stories often include data journalism, and are also more likely to be longer reads, so they tend to be published during evenings and weekends when people generally have more time.

'Live' content requires a quicker turnaround and is more likely to include live blogs and video, while 'niche' stores tend to involve more forward planning in terms of previews and reviews of big events.

The changes were made to "reflect the different areas of content which we serve to our digital audience," said Gallagher.

You can keep up with Manchester Live content throughout today using the hashtag #ManchesterLive.

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