Because the pace of change is increasing and because I’ve been playing with Google Notebook I thought I’d ask the tool to summarise the new Reuters whitepaper.
This document Powering Trust News With AI: Navigating the Present and Trusting the Future looks at how artificial intelligence with affect news rooms, or rather, what’s left of them.
So, in the spirit of AI, here is a summary of how AI can be used in news and communications, in 10 bullet points, for an audience of communications and public relations people:
● AI presents both opportunities and risks for the news and media industry. While it can enhance news reporting and delivery, there are concerns about misinformation, the rapid pace of AI development, and potential threats to intellectual property.
● AI can revolutionise newsrooms by improving workflow efficiencies. One example is Avista, an AI-powered tool developed by Reuters that helps clients quickly find specific video segments.
● Maintaining trust and journalistic integrity in the age of AI is crucial. At Reuters, AI tools are evaluated based on their ability to support the company’s mission of delivering unbiased and important news stories.
● Human oversight remains essential. Editors and journalists should retain control and carefully review AI-generated content to ensure accuracy and ethical standards.
● There are three key ways AI can be integrated into workflows: replacing tasks humans don’t need to do, augmenting existing work, and facilitating innovative experiments.
● Combating misinformation is a top priority. AI algorithms can help detect fake news, images, and videos.
● AI literacy is essential for navigating the evolving media landscape. News organisations and consumers need to be aware of the capabilities and limitations of AI.
● Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are changing audience expectations. The media industry must adapt to meet the demand for faster and more personalised content delivery.
● AI can help news organisations stay relevant in a changing media landscape. This includes using AI to optimise content discoverability and deliver information efficiently while maintaining safeguards.
● The future of AI in media will likely involve increased automation to handle tasks such as translation and transcription. This will free up journalists to focus on in-depth, unbiased reporting from trusted sources.
Firstly, a useful summary using Google Notebook which I increasingly love. Its benefit is that it works with what you give it rather than pulling things from across the internet like ChatGPT.
What this means for comms and PR
Firstly, it’s clear that thev relationship between reporters and media relations is evolving. Some things still stay the same. For me, the definition of news remains information that somebody somewhere doesn’t want you to know.
But beyond that definition, the landscape is changing. With misinformation, we can rightly be focused on what bad actors may try and do with content. We are looking to respected news titles to be a major bullwark against misinformation. It’s try they are a bullwark. But I don’t think communications needs to sit back and relax.
So, if news titles, and sorry I’m calling them that rather than news brands, are looking to invest in tools to weed out misinformation and disinformation then that’s something public sector comms needs to look at.
What’s also really interesting is the line that AI tools are changing audience expectation. If they think news titles should be getting better at delivering targeted information that’s something the institutions of state need to look at. That includes the NHS, councils, fire and police, too.
People talk about the importance of fresh air and exercise and then often don’t follow it up. The OS app was my discovery in lockdown when we couldn’t travel far.
If its true that elections are petri dishes for communications ideas then the 2024 US Presidential Election is the biggest laboratory of them all.
If its also true that the polls on November 5 will be decided by a few thousand voters in seven swing states then the work around the edges may well decide who runs the free world.
Now, this post is not an exhaustive analysis of both campaigns but more a distanced look at what headline strategies from Harris and Trump can teach us.
Analysts in the days before polling day say that Trump is all about firing up his base by making them angry while Harris is going after undecided voters.
“It’s all pieces of a very complex puzzle,” Harris senior campaign adviser David Plouffe told AP. “This would all be a simpler exercise if you can focus just on one voter cohort. You can’t. And you got to make sure you know you’re doing well enough with all of them so that when you put all that together it adds up to 50 per cent.”
This may seem extreme to a UK audience. Actually, this is just a 10-storey technicolour version of the UK landscape. We don’t consume the media in the same way. A 16-year-old glued to a mobile phone takes on information in a different way to a 66-year-old BBC News watcher.
But what about the comms in the Trump v Harris fight?
It’s not all about the corporate account
If it came down to a straight head to head battle of social media account followers then Donald Trump would be going straight back to The White House. He outguns Kamala Harris massively. It’s a 13 to 1 win on follower count across social media channels. It’s not even close.
His Twitter account’s 95.4 million followers is the jewel in his crown but he also is outfollowing his opponent over on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, too
That Harris is still even in the race is because they have tapped into other accounts and networks. For example, Taylor Swift’s endorsement to her 283 million Instagram followers or her 32 million supporters on TikTok.
It’s about going to where the eyeballs are in mainstream media
Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live, for example. That’s not changed. Kids, Google ‘Bill Clinton + sax.’
A strategy that Labour and the Conservatives in the UK have developed.
It’s about the memes
Just as in the UK General Election, images with text rule. They capture a moment and can be forwarded within seconds to supporters’ networks. For each micro-campaign moment there are memes with many originating from the centre. This leads to…
Harris has a team of five on TikTok who know the platform backwards, know what works and know what will fly. They are given the keys, minimal sign-off and get on with it. The lime green colours and Arial typeface inspired by Charlie XCX came from this. So did the range of content.
It’s about bespoke content for the platform
It works on TikTok? Great. Let it work there. It won’t work on X, formerly Twitter. So don’t try.
The language of the corporate account reflects the platform not the politician on Kamala Harris’ account. Commentator Rachel Karten likens this to a fan account. “It’s not like it’s coming from a campaign,” she writes. “It’s like: We talk like you. Even the caption is like: ‘You have to watch this.’”
It’s ANGER-tainment
One particularly prescient piece of commentary was that it’s a mistake to compare Harris and Trump as two politicians. They are not. One is a politician while the other, Donald Trump, is a consummate exponent of angertainment. This is the blended mix of anger and entertainment that Trump has been brilliant at. His content is about getting a REACTION rather than a reasoned response. So, in that context it makes sense that he talks about pointing guns pointing at Liz Cheney’s face. While Harris is telling people how terrible Trump is she’s not talking about her own message.
It’s not just about polling day
I’m writing this before election day. Last time there was an election in the US there was an insurrection because someone couldn’t accept the fact they lost. I don’t think that the story of the election ends when the results are announced.
One of the best meetings I ever had in my time in local government was post-2011 riots with police and bloggers.
There we were at Wolverhampton police station, two police Superintendents, four bloggers and me from Walsall Council.
It wasn’t, as the saying goes, an interview without coffee but more a constructive chat.
While riots had gripped other parts of the country, our part of the West Midlands had avoided the worst of it. In part, this was because the Superintendents had used Twitter to shoot down rumours in real time as they emerged.
The bloggers would spot the rumour and one of the officers would shoot them down.
It was a remarkably effective tactic and it became the cornerstone for how we tackled emergency planning.
If you think that’s common sense, you’ll have to remember that the Metropolitan Police were actively discussing how to make a kill switch to turn the internet off at a time of crisis. No, really. They were.
As the meeting ended and we filed out, it only then occurred to me that the local regional paper wasn’t there. Why? Because they didn’t use social media and preferred if people waited until the next day to find what had been going on. No, really, they did.
Why journalism is important
In really simple terms, a source of information makes people more informed so they are more likely to vote. There is more faith in the process if they can see it being held to account.
Yes, public sector comms people will often swear about a particular reporter or publication but on balance they are a necessary part of society.
The promise of local bloggers
Around 2009, former civil servant Will Perrin launched the Talk About Local project to promote and explore the idea that a new generation of journalism would emerge. Concerned citizens armed with laptops would start new local news sites.
The movement was helped by thenlocal government minister Eric Pickles who insisted that bloggers – or anyone – could tweet or livestream from public meetings.
In the West Midlands, some good sites emerged such as, WV11 in Wolverhampton, A Little Bit of Stone and Lichfield Live in Staffordshire and the unrelated Telford Live in Shropshire emerged. There were some good debates about how much press officers should support those blogs. I was very much in the ‘treat them like journalists’ camp.
Some of those sites fell away or morphed into Facebook groups. Brownhills Bob’s Facebook group has a staggering 56,000 members. But that early promise of a revolution in the sector never really took hold. It’s hard holding down a job in the day then holding your council to account at night.
So, where is alternative news today?
Two things I want to flag up with you.
Alternative news is a £24.6m economy
Firstly, the Public Interest News Foundation. This is a UK-Government funded project to map alternative news providers. I was surprised to read that there are the best part of 400 websites and radio stations across the UK that cover news in one form or another.
Their 2024 report is a useful read as it sets out the impact of these sites. There are around 350,000 unique users per site which makes them potentially influential. Many are affiliated with regulators such as Ofcom or Ipsos which gives additional confidence to their standards.
In some parts of the UK, where there are news deserts, coverage of news by an independent provider is all there is.
Their map of indie news sites is worth a look if you’re wondering if there’s one in your area.
Email first providers
Aside from that,, a new generation of news providers has emerged that follow an email-first strategy. Mill Media secured funding to launch publications in Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Liverpool with sites in Glasgow and London to follow.
Refreshingly, these publications are not powered by clicks but subscribers. So, three or four stories a day are published to subscribers. Those who have opted into the paid model get more content. They are a deeper dive.
The Manchester Mill site tells the story: “The idea was very simple: would people start valuing and paying for local news again if it was done in a completely different way? More in-depth; more nuanced; with stories that were more enjoyable to read and weren’t covered in horrible advertising.”
I’ve been meaning to research what these look like for some time but haven’t had the time to go through the numbers.
So, what?
Of course, the acid test for public sector comms is so what? Independent media isn’t poised to replace traditional media. There won’t be say, Blog Preston sellers in the streets although many providers have experimented with print. The money isn’t there in the sector squeezed by Google and Facebook but this can be an extra voice in the community.
Yes, they could carry your campaign message but they may well want to ask you questions. Like the reporter v press officer relationship this can ebb and flow.
Clearly, trolling the posts with ‘Yet again’ every time the channel posted yet on the late singer wasn’t having the desired effect. Facebook’s algorithm, it seems, doesn’t register sarcasm.
Three years ago, I started some research to pin down where local newspapers were but never got round to blogging. In short, the research showed Reach plc’s content on local Facebook pages was about 50 per cent local. Othernews companies were around 70 per cent.
Idly, I wondered how this compared to Black Country Live. So I looked at the last 100 posts.
The results, reader, will amaze you.
Just 10 per cent of the content on Black Country Live were local news. Ten per cent. If you count Liam Payne it rises to 30 per cent.
National news is 35 per cent, other West Midlands news is 26 per cent, Staffordshire is four per cent with other is five per cent.
Now, I’ve still got nothing against the admin pumping this out. I’m sure they put the hours in. I’ve also got nothing against Reach’s David Higgerson who commented in detail on my last post. Thank you, David. He mentions some good local reporting. There is. It’s just a shame it is drowned out.
But it did make me think that if the business model is national stories and stories from across the Midlands region then maybe Reach would be better if they dispensed with the idea they cover local news entirely.
A LadBible of regional news is fine but just call it that.
Here’s the list.
The Fieldhouse reopened on October 24 after being closed for three weeks to undergo a full revamp (Restaurant re-opening in Solihull).
Surinder Blah, now 72, abused one girl when she was just seven-years-old (Warwick Crown Court case on Leamington Spa man)
Joel Hislop, 32, was convicted of the serious assault (Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court case)
Joshua Burnham Smith, 18, has been banned from driving for 12 months (Leamington Spa magistrates court case)
This Morning star died aged 31 last Wednesday, in a plunge from a third-floor balcony. (Liam Payne)
Part of the motorway was closed following the incident near junction 8 (West Bromwich incident)
Filming has been taking place in Netherton with the Peaky Blinders movie set to air in late 2025 or early 2026 (Netherton)
New rates for benefits calculated after release of latest inflation figures (National)
Man sentenced and has to stump up nearly £3,000 in fines after he was caught dumping rubbish (Court not identified).
Update for over three million claimants about changes to payments from next year (National)
The M5 northbound is closed between J1 for West Bromwich and J8 for the M6 (West Bromwich)
The ITV The X Factor star, aged 31, died in Buenos Aires in Argentina last week – and Buerk has addressed the coverage on Radio 4 Today.
Nicole, who put together One Direction alongside Simon Cowell during her role as a judge and mentor on ITV The X Factor, has paid tribute to the 31-year-old.
Solihull’s Michael Buerk said he could not understand why Radio 4 and the News at Ten have given it such prominence
Coercive and controlling Paul Andrews beat a woman and was found guilty of sexual assault by digital penetration (Warwick Crown Court)
This Morning star and GB News presenter called time on their long-standing relationship earlier this year – shocking fans and followers. (National)
Kathleen Nicol was rushed to hospital where she sadly died the following day (Stoke-on-Trent)
Rachael Gough, 46, has not been seen for months (Birmingham)
The X Factor star died aged 31 last Wednesday, in a fall from a third floor balcony in Buenos Aires in Argentina where he was staying while supporting former One Direction star Niall Horan on his tour
Convicted sex offender Phidel Gonzales, 36, had to be segregated in prison due to being mistreated by other inmates, a court heard (Birmingham Crown Court)
The childhood sweethearts, who met while at school together in Solihull, named their daughter Mila Rose Grealish (Solihull)
A busy stretch of the motorway between J6 Solihull and J7/7a Coleshill Interchange will be closed, with National Highways saying it would ‘inevitably cause disruption’ (Solihull)
Alex Jones welcomed the Matrix and John Wick star into the BBC studio on Wednesday (October 23) evening. (National)
The BBC star, who is an ITV Lorraine favourite too, was seen throwing up on a spin-off of Big Brother on ITV on Wednesday (October 23) evening in dramatic scenes. (National)
Liam Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy was madly in love with the former One Direction star and has been left heartbroken by his sudden death – here’s what she has said
Ms Reeves is preparing to extend the freeze on income tax thresholds in a move that will raise £7 billion a year, according to reports. (National)
The new Labour Party government has made £1.5bn profit from an unprecedented deal with Octopus and the agreement not only safeguarded jobs and customer service but also filled the public coffers at a crucial time. (National)
Nationwide has urged people impacted by dementia to seek support by visiting in-branch dementia clinics . (National)
DWP has issued a warning to thousands of married women over State Pension back payments after the National Insurance contributions mix-up. (National)
Tony, 60, sent an unkind message about Clare’s presenting ability to her by accident which caused a huge row. (National)
22 Kids and Counting star, who hails from Morecambe, spoke out just hours after happy news their brood is getting bigger. (Morecambe)
EastEnders star opened up on the second episode of new podcast A Gentle Start: The Showercast’ by Timotei this week. (National)
Tyson Fury has revealed his wife Paris suffered a miscarriage the day before his fight with Oleksandr Usyk – and he knew he had lost before even stepping in the ring (Sport)
Workers told major law changes will boost their bank balances (National)
‘Harpsford’ in leafy St Peters Lane in Bickenhill is on the market but anyone taking it on will need more to make it fit for habitation (Solihull)
The body of Hardip Singh Sarai was found inside a derelict building on Soho Hill (Birmingham)
Daiana Gauna spoke out over her conversation with the Wolverhampton star a week on from his death at a Buenos Aires hotel. (Wolverhampton).
The glamourous mum-of-seven often shares snapshots of her life on social media, but fans spotted her wrist was often edited out (National)
Malik is preparing to get back on the road following the tragic death of Liam, who starred on ITV The X Factor alongside him.
Payne’s girlfriend Kate reportedly left the Wolverhampton singer and West Bromwich Albion fan in a Buenos Aires hotel room before his death after likening it to a “hostage situation”.
The cash-strapped authority have sites listed in Edgbaston and Hockley (Birmingham)
Free bus passes and prescriptions for pensioners will be protected in the Budget, which Labour Party Chancellor Rachel Reeves is poised to deliver next week. (National)
The mum of five was quizzed by Louis Theroux on his podcast about her romantic encounters with big celebrity names (National)
The Olympic cycling legend has tragically been given just two to four years to live (National)
Ruth Langsford has praised her son Jack as the “greatest love” of her life, as she continues to navigate through a divorce with Eamonn Holmes after 14 years of marriage (National)
Officers are reviewing CCTV following the incident (Walsall).
The X Factor star’s girlfriend’s pals have spoken out days after Payne died in a hotel balcony fall.
Kate Cassidy and late One Direction star Liam Payne had been in Argentina for more than two weeks before she decided to return home to the US
The dog was tied to a tree behind bushes at the Sutton Coldfield beauty spot, close to the Banners Gate car park. Appeals are being made to find the owner (Sutton Coldfield)
BC Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer Gorka, who shares two children with ITV Emmerdale and Channel 4 Hollyoaks alum Gemma, has defended his fiancee. (National)
It follows a woman reported being sexually assaulted on Corporation Street just after midnight on Thursday, August 22 (Birmingham)
The X Factor star and Wolverhampton singer, who shot to fame as one-fifth of One Direction, died after plunging from a third floor balcony in Buenos Aires in Argentina last Wednesday.
Jia Xin Teo, 22, from Coventry, was found guilty of murder following a trial today (Coventry)
A murder investigation continues following the death of Riyan Ali following a shooting in Alderson Road in Washwood Heath (Birmingham)
New data reveals the roads which have the biggest problems with speeding – with three in the West Midlands making the top five (Walsall)
The X Factor star, aged 31, died in Argentina last Wednesday, following a plunge from a third-floor balcony in the capital city.
Mobile phone footage shows the fireball collision on the Aston Expressway last night (Birmingham)
The BBC Sounds and ITV star’s team at Money Saving Expert have shared details of the Marriage Tax Allowance perk which can hand married couples handy cash. (National)
Piers welcomed Katie Waissel, a former X Factor star, onto his Talk TV Uncensored show on Tuesday night (October 22) where they addressed the tragedy.
Kimberley Baggley was told by doctors that she needed rest and was advised to ‘go on a spa day’ (Stoke-on-Trent)
Staff at Ben’s Fish Bar swiftly intervened when a would-be robber tried to snatch cash at takeaway in Warwick Road, Sparkbrook (Birmingham)
Rhiannon Skye Whyte, 27, died following an incident at Bescot Stadium railway station (Walsall)
This Country star appeared on the ITV panel show, which aired from 12.30pm today Wednesday (October 23). (National)
Jeremy Townend ‘exploited’ the young girl over many months (Cambridge Crown Court).
The city council sold properties in Edgbaston and Hockley (Birmingham)
A proposal had been submitted to convert a four bedroomed property into address for multiple occupation (Birmingham)
Riley Thompson, five, was diagnosed with an optic nerve glioma in February – his mum said that although she was a nurse, she ‘had no idea he was blind in his right eye’ (Glasgow)
Ex-Good Morning Britain star spoke out on Twitter, now X, in the wake of his Uncensored coverage of the Wolverhampton singer sparking fury earlier this week.
Payne, 31, investigators are reportedly hunting for further information on employees of Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires after the ITV The X Factor star’s tragic passing.
New artificial intelligence speed cameras (AI) and devices can “see inside your car” to check whether you are paying proper attention to the road as well as just measuring your speed. (National)
The X Factor star was in talks for a series of dates next year despite concerns from those close to the singer that he wasn’t prepared mentally for the demands of life on the road.
Police are raiding ITV The X Factor star and Wolverhampton singer Payne’s hotel for intel on employees who worked the day of his death.
Nicole Sonahar, aged 28, said she went on the run for two years due to being ‘scared’ in her own accommodation (Birmingham)
The alarm was raised after smoke was seen billowing from an old black ash tree in the tiny hamlet of Marshbrook, near Ludlow, Shrops (Ludlow)
The Brummie chef, known as the Potato Queen, faces tough criticism online (Birmingham)
One person has become a viral sensation after sharing a video of a hidden feature on a car that many people are only just discovering – and it’s very useful indeed (National)
Kelly Jones, aged 42, escaped prison as she was handed a 10-year ban on owning animals for what an RSCPA officer described as ‘terrible suffering’ (Tipton)
The latest estimates show the cost of raising a child from 0 to 18 is £166,000 for a couple, and £220,000 for a lone parent, according to figures released last year. (National)
The X Factor star’s love letters to Kate, who left Argentina in the run-up to his death aged 31 last Wednesday in a hotel balcony fall, have emerged.
There have been reports the Labour Party Chancellor Rachel Reeves could change pensions tax policy in the Budget on October 30. (National)
Bake Off has left fans furious and demanding “justice” after Andy, a popular favourite, was axed following a nightmare episode.(National)
Kate Cassidy has shared a new Instagram post paying tribute to Wolverhampton singer Payne, 31.
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Tearoom reopens on Thursday, October 24 – here’s the menu and prices (Birmingham)
During the latest instalment of The Repair Shop, one guest explained how she was ‘future-proofing’ her life after being diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition. (National)
Tyson Fury has revealed his wife Paris suffered a miscarriage the day before his fight with Oleksandr Usyk – and he knew he had lost before even stepping in the ring (National)
One couple spoke out over the bizarre circumstances they found themselves in, after a lender rejected their mortgage because the money had come from Ireland.(Norwich)
The former glamour model and mother of five sparked concern as she promoted a clothing brand on Instagram (National)
Major changes recommended around driving rules for older people (National)
His family released a statement confirming the tragic news today, October 23 (National)
The mum of five said it was ‘beneficial for her overall well being’ (National)
Former Strictly Come Dancing celebrity contestant, who was paired up with Johannes last year, signed off from a tennis tournament last week. (National)
‘Harpsford’ in leafy St Peters Lane in Bickenhill is on the market but anyone taking it on will need more to make it fit for habitation (Solihull)
The X Factor star’s father has flown to South America, where he is waiting to leave with his son’s body following the tragedy.
Daniel Khalife, 23, was previously based in Stafford (Stafford)
She was heard to say: ‘Everyone has at some stage put something on their CV they regretted putting there and shouldn’t have’ (National)
More than £4,000 has been raised since his death (Wolverhampton)
The museum finally opens to the public after four and a half years on Thursday, October 24 (Birmingham)
An 18-year-old has since been charged in relation to the alleged incident (Walsall)
A ‘suspicious vehicle’ has led to an evacuation of part of Birmingham Airport with some reports of ‘chaos’ while others say ‘everyone’s very unbothered’
The X Factor’s dad Geoff and his bodyguard Paul Higgins have been seen reviewing security footage of Hotel CasaSur Palermo after Liam plunged from a third-floor balcony last Wednesday.
That’s the list.
If you’re reading this in the Black Country I’m going to duck the question as to whether Wolverhampton and Walsall are in the Black Country. There is a hardcore that insists no, they are not.
In short, the tool can be used to create a podcast with two speakers to talk through whatever content you give it.
Something like ChatGPT, a large language model, has consumed a big bite out of the internet so it’ll bring that knowledge with it. However, Notebook LM works only on what you’ve brought it. So, if you have a long report or a series of links on a subject you can chuck them in and ask them to summarise for you.
Seeing as though I’d just blogged about the coverage of Liam Payne’s death on Black Country Live on Facebook I thought I’d chuck that into the tool.
And for wider content I thought I’d also add a link to the UK Press Gazette coverage of Facebook moving away from news as a source it shares in people’s timelines.
Firstly, Notbeook LM provided a text summary of what it thought of the two sources. And then you get the chance for it to provide a summary as a podcast. After waiting two or three minutes, this was produced.
If you are not happy with the results or the emphasis, yes, you can go back and change that in the original text setting.
The results? Well, there are the ahs, and ums you would expect from a podcast as two presenters talk through the key points. It’s ;like liustening to two people who have read the material and are talking it through. I also love how they’ve added some value of their own. There is criticism in the original piece of Black Country Live’s coverage and the hosts come up with their own ideas for how the title could report on the issue.
With that in mind, is this a useful way of summarising two documents for you? It can be. The American accident is a clear impediment to a British audience but if you can work through this it may be a useful way for you to consume something on the go.
The added value the hosts give can also be useful so long as you know where the joins are.
At the moment, Google’s Notebook LM is at a pilot stage with free access. You can find it here.
A pop star who was born on the patch dies and the news operation goes into overdrive.
Liam Payne was born and grew up in Wolverhampton and died in Argentina.
In three days, the Facebook page pumps out 81 posts in 36 hours and in a 24-hour period three days after the death still nets 846 reactions and comments.
High fives around the newsroom and living proof that the old print adage ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ is alive and well.
On the face of it, this is a solid result for Reach plc’s Black Country Live, an offshoot of Birmingham Live, which is in itself the online inheritance of the mighty Birmingham Post & Mail.
Scratch the surface, and you can tell a whole lot more about where local journalism is in 2024. For starters, of the more than six dozen posts, there was almost nothing from the people of Wolverhampton. No vox pop in the street, no statement from Wolverhampton College where he was a student.
Reach would probably say the no death knock at his parents’ and family house showed they were respecting their privacy. Old hacks would probably point out that there are no staff left who know how to execute such awkward tasks. In the olden days they may have even dispatched to South America their own photographer and reporter.
Secondly, their coverage showed an extreme example of a local title’s online presence milking a story. In this, the story is nudged on inch by inch with fresh coverage. I’ve seen this tactic many times before and it especially gets used by Reach plc with celebrity stories. If you’re invested in the story it’s great. If you’re not, it gets irritating fast. It also squeezes out other news coverage.
Here’s a selection posted to Black Country Live’s Facebook page on Saturday October 19, three days after the news broke:
Heartfelt tribute to Liam Payne from his father
Heartfelt tribute to Liam Payne from Cheryl
Heartfelt tribute to Liam Payne from Cheryl
Tragic loss of Liam Payne in Buenos Aires
Heartbreaking loss of Liam Payne at 31
Heartfelt tribute to Liam Payne from Zayn Malik
Heartbreaking loss for Liam Payne’s family
Liam Payne’s tragic final moments revealed
Liam Payne’s phone could unlock tragic mystery
Liam Payne’s final moments revealed in tragic incident
Remembering Liam Payne’s joyful moments with fans
Disturbing behaviour from Liam Payne before tragic incident
Liam Payne’s final moments revealed by shocked fan
The singer, from Wolverhampton, was in Argentina when he died
Tragic end for Liam Payne at Argentinian hotel
But thirdly, and maybe most importantly is the backlash from readers.
Of the 158 comments attached to the Black Country Live’s Facebook page on Saturday October 19, a weighty 42 per cent of comments were criticising the milking of the story.
Kathryn Lane:I’m annoyed with myself for writing this and giving this page what they want which is interaction. The more they annoy people the more they comment and react and build their page. As others have said there are family and friends who have to see this bombardment. 84 posts and counting is just disrespectful.
Chris Way: Give it a rest Black Country Live?! How many stories more you going to milk out of this?!
Jenny Thomas:Enough is enough! Please just let the family, friends and fans grieve in peace.
Natalie Carrol: Give his family some respect and let him rest in peace. A seven year old got killed yesterday in an explosion, nothing really even mentioned about that. Every life is precious, not just a famous one.
Philip Alexander:That’s gotta be the 4th article today at least and it’s only 11am.
Full disclosure, I was a reporter for 12 years and nine of those I was up against the Black Country Evening Mail who had five reporters based in the West Bromwich office a mile away from the Express & Star where I worked. I got to know several of them. Some I speak to and others I wouldn’t have trusted an inch.
I’ve no criticism of the Reach plc employees pumping out content on the Black Country Live Facebook page and its 71,000 followers. They have a hard job and I don’t envy them. It’s a local story of a boy made good with a sad ending.
On the face of it, hey, all engagement is good engagement, right?
In reality, if you annoy your readers so much they talk about blocking you this can’t be a long term strategy.
Then there is also Black Country Live being accused of stealing an image of a young Liam with his Mum around X Factor time. A former colleague and Express & Star photographer Tim Thursfield accused them of the theft. He should probably know because he took the pic.
What does this mean for public sector comms?
Please learn this. Reach titles have long stopped considering themselves as newspapers. They are not alone in this.They are news brands. The paper of record from a few decades ago has long gone. Those days won’t return.
News and how we consume it is very much changing. But in a crisis we still turn to the local paper, or rather brand. The Liverpool Echo, a Reach title whose brand is strong enough to resist the company-wide ‘Live’ rebranding, led some vital reporting in the summer of the Southport murders and subsequent rioting.
The Live brand does have an audience in the Black Country with 78 per cent of adults living in the Black Country weekly see some form of content, JICREG shows
We are told that local titles play an important role in the health of local democracy. They used to, anyway.
The milking strategy for stories does no-one any good in the long term. It iritaes people. It underlines the importance for the public sector of having their own channels. It also undermines confidence in people in their trust in the ability of a title to cover their patch’s news.
The Liam Payne story could be dismissed as a one off. But it taps into regular observation of the scarcity of local news reporting I’ve heard elsewhere.
As the trust in local titles dwindles day-to-day, what happens next?
Hands up if you’ve found it harder to get value out of your Facebook page unless you get your corporate credit card out to boost a post.
Got your hand up? Congratulations, you’re in exactly the same boat as everyone who has a Facebook page.
It’s been a long time since posting to a Facebook page alone has meant you reach a decent sized audience. Facebook has made it harder for you from penalising posts from a page with links to limiting the amount of timeline made up of Facebook page content.
Meta have said this throttling of Facebook pages is them listening to users who are more keen on content from friends and family. They have a point. But being a cynic, I’d say this is made deliberately harder to persuade you to crack open that corporate credit card to boost a post.
However, there’s still ways you can get the most out of Facebook and they’ve just announced some key changes that if used wisely can be very much to your advantage.
These measures have been freshly announced by Meta are being tested in the US and will be expanded to the UK in the coming months. Some of the coverage has been around how this is being made to make it more appealing to younger people. I think there’s plenty there to reach over 30s who are a rich audience for public sector people.
Key change: The launch of the Facebook local tab
This, Facebook says, will gather together local information in one place by bringing together Reels, marketplace, groups and events.
So, the theory is that this will pull together a summary of things for your area. Quite how big the area in question will be hasn’t been clarified but the selection will be through the algorithm.
This is what it will look like…
The local element of this can play strongly to a public sector page but you’ll have to be clever. This won’t pull content directly from your page’s posts.But it will pull things from your events.
The events button is often overlooked by page admin. I can see why. You’re time poor and just asked to chuck stuff out but then clever admin can create an event on the Facebook page. This will be a particular advantage to say, museums, town centre events, open days, fire station car washes or live streams for things like Q&As or how to guides.
Events are now a secret weapon for you.
Facebook group content is also pulled into the local tab. So, your Facebook group strategy is further rewarded. Yes, I know that there are a lot of Facebook groups and no, you don’t have to connect with all of them but this is where people are and this may be a way that your content can be surfaced on the local tab.
Key changes to events
So, we’ve already seen that events have become quite powerful tools as they can be picked up by the Facebook events tab. On top of that, Facebook announced even more reasons to put more of your time into them.
You’ll now be able to send event invites via text message and to your Instagram followers. The logistics of this haven’t been made clear but this new step looks like a useful one to explore.
The new video tab will pull together Reels and oyster video in one place on Facebook.
Again, this is a further reason to take your video content more seriously. This should be mainstream rather than an occasional nice to have.
This is how that will look…
Key change to Facebook groups
Facebook groups get a further tweak. The platform will introduce AI tools to help users look for answers to regular questions.
There’s nothing there directly for public sector people but it does underline that taking part in discussions and answering questions can be useful.
Key change: launch of Messenger communities
It looks like Meta are looking to repeat the trick that they’ve already done with WhatsApp.
Basically, WhatsApp communities has allowed people to create a space where people in an organisation or campaign can come together for announcements as well as smaller sub-groups under the same umbrella. This is probably more for the American market which is a lot more fonder of Messenger than they are WhatsApp.
I hope this list helps you think of what your comms needs to look like in 2025.
A hospital visit can be daunting. So, children and parents can explore the building before they go using 360-degree photography and explainer videos. In a guest post, here’s how.
Hi,
My name is Phil McNamara. I am the External Communications Manager at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool.
Recently, we launched our new 360-degree virtual map of Alder Hey – called Matterport.
The challenge to solve
Many of these projects start as ambitious ideas linked to corporate strategy or vision. In our case, I was part of a group set up to improve the experience of children and young people coming to our hospital. After all, hospitals are scary places, especially if you’re only a small person. This is not a new idea; every hospital in the world has similar groups, and most of them start with ‘Let’s do a video’—there is nothing unusual about that request. I am sure most comms teams can relate.
Thankfully, 12 months earlier, I had been working on a Matterport map for Alder Hey’s Tier 4 inpatient mental health unit called Sunflower House. It is not a large building, but because of the sensitivities around the service, funders and partners could not easily access the building for a tour, for example. Plus, we wanted to show how great it was for young people (and their parents) who may stay there. So, a virtual map was an obvious idea. There was unanimous enthusiasm when I presented this option for the hospital (and eventually all the other buildings Alder Hey runs from).
How we solved it
What is a Matterport? It is basically like Google Street View, but better. It allows the user to walk around the area from any internet-enabled device as if they were in the building itself. The camera is 4K and you can add interactive areas, embed videos, MP3 files, and even games. It is perfect for a children’s hospital.
A screenshot from Alder Hey Hospital’s Matterport showing a view of the hospital’s interior as part of the Matterport scheme.
We successfully applied for funding to our brilliant charity for phase one of the project, and I was given a small project group and time to do it—well, you just had to find the time. To put it into perspective, Alder Hey is a huge place. It is one of Europe’s busiest and biggest hospitals, so mapping it was a huge task.
We used a company called VisualEyes, based in Halifax and started to plan the project. Each scan takes about 10-15 seconds and involves the camera recording a 360-degree view of its surroundings. You also have to hide from the camera. We painfully scanned each area, moving slowly through the hospital five metres at a time, clearing the area, pressing record, hiding, and then repeating. We mapped the areas we had prioritised over four weekends, covering 188,000 square feet and eight departments. Most of the scans were in the morning when the hospital was quiet.
A shot of The Atrium interior at Alder Hey Hospitalas part of the Matterport scheme. People can navigate their way around the site virtually to help make their visit less daunting.
Then, we added interactive areas called hotspots. These can be videos, labels, or sound effects. There are 156 hotspots, including 74 videos—all done in-house, i.e. scripted, filmed, and edited. We used Veed for editing. This was the longest part of the project as each area and subsequent video was different, and we had to work with teams to agree on a script and then decide on a time and place to record.
Our audience… a child
We scripted each video as if a 10-year-old was listening, so there was no jargon or abbreviations where we could, and we kept them short—a maximum of one minute and kept the style the same. We had requests to shoehorn old videos into it, but for the most part, we said no. We used children and young people from our different youth forums to present many of the videos, but often, where the subject matter was a little more complex, we used our staff, who were brilliant, although they often had to be persuaded to be on camera.
It’s easy to get lost in such a huge hospital, so we created virtual signage next. The map has over 200 virtual signs. The templates were professionally designed, and our project group created each individual sign based on the design template using Canva Pro.
Balancing this project alongside the day job was challenging, but having the support of the Executive team and managers was essential. We did have to pause the project on a few occasions, such as when we declared a major incident, as we had to prioritise different things, but we are very proud of the result.
Next steps
It is the largest virtual tour in any health setting in Europe and one of the largest in the world anywhere. We plan on phase two to finish the hospital map, add more videos and map some of the other buildings we have out in the community as well as include the latest updates. For example, we can gamify it with open-source gaming, i.e. embed html games, add treasure hunts, include AI chatbots, add avatars and even personalise a young person’s journey in the future. We have even spoken to the production company that makes CBBC’s Operation Ouch about the possibility of curating their content to add to this in the future.
A screen shot from the interactive 360-degree photography showing a room where the CT scanner can be found at Alder Hey hospital.Hopes are high the technology can help ease the worry of hospital visits.
I see this as a viable alternative to websites and some social media channels for young people to learn, experience and interact with an NHS organisation (although all the videos are on Alder Hey’s YouTube channel). Too often, I see public sector websites full of videos, leaflets, links, and forms that take up too much space on a website that is supposed to be for a mobile device. They target an audience that never uses them in that way. When was the last time a young person read a leaflet? In contrast, something like this is fun, practical, engaging, educational and in one place.
An unexpected spin-off
Although it is primarily for children and young people, we will use it as part of our staff induction for new starters. Our international department will send it to its overseas stakeholders. Our charity can use it to show where funding has gone and can be used for educational purposes, too.
We know the job isn’t fully complete, but we are very pleased with it. We hope, more than anything, that we help children and young people feel a little less nervous about going to Alder Hey. One comment we had from the launch which hit home was:
“…my daughter is neurodiverse and finds her visits to unknown parts of the hospital really hard! This will make all the difference, and I can’t thank you enough.”
If we have only helped that one person, then that’s enough for now.
About a decade ago I sat in a deckchair on holiday and came up with a list of skills a public sector comms person needed.
A few years later I did the exercise again instead looking at what the wider team needed. I realised there was now too many skills for every team member to know.
A few weeks ago, I was asked to repeat the process with an eye on what skills are now needed in 2025. Here is that list.
The list is in two parts, core skills and specialist skills.
Everyone in the team needs the core skills with the wider specialist skills covered by the team.
After reflecting, I’ve added some basic AI knowledge to the core skills. Using it safely is a core task everyone now needs to know.
CORE SKILLS
| Know your organisation’s priorities and how to deliver them.
| Know your audience and help others to know theirs.
| Know the age and cultural demographics of your area.
| Know which channel is the most effective for all demographics be this print, social, web, radio, podcast, face-to-face or TV.
| Know how to create content effectively on all platforms.
| Know how and what to evaluate with the service area you work with.
| Know how to write a comms plan with the input of others.
| Know how to plan, shoot, edit and post effective vertical and landscape video.
| Know how to choose the best person or people to front your content.
| Know that social media is social.
| Know that effective social media is a mix of some call to action with more lighter human content.
| Know how to stay updated how the algorithms change on the key platforms.
| Know how to Speak human.
| Know how to educate the client.
| Know how to be a diplomat and know the big and small ‘p’ political awareness.
| Know how to speak truth to power.
| Know how to tell stories.
| Know how to add emotion.
| Know how to interpret data.
| Know how to respond in an emergency.
| Know how to communicate with head and heart and when to do them.
| Know and understand jargon but translate it into plain English.
| Know GDPR.
| Know copyright law with images, video, text and generative AI content.
| Know the basics of RIPA.
| Know the HSE legislation.
| Know how to create accessible content.
| Know brand guidelines and when they are applicable.
| Know when to engage and when not to online.
| Know current UK Government guidance on AI.
| Know GCS guidelines for safe use of generative platforms.
| Know how and when to safely create words, images and video using AI that are within UK Government guidelines, your organisation’s policies and the guidelines of the platforms to which they are posted.
| Know your social media house rules and when to enforce them.
| Know how to evaluate and locate relevant data with the critical mind of a scientist, the eye an artist and a filmmaker and the story telling ability of Roald Dahl.
| Know how to present your advice, findings and evaluation.
PERSONAL SKILLS
| Know how to work as a team and as an individual.
| Know how to work with a service area.
| Know how to work with empathy.
ETHICS
| Know your own professional standards and those expected by your organisation.
| Know how your organisation’s constitution or founding legislation affects your job.
SPECIALIST SKILLS
STRATEGIC
| Know how to draw-up an emergency plan and work with colleagues from other organisations at a stretegic level as part of the Civil Contingencies Act.
| Know as a head of communications how you help deliver the strategic vision of the organisation.
WORDS
| Know how to write good content in print, social and web.
| Know how to write a marketing email subject line and to improve open rates and click throughs.
IMAGES
| Know how to take and edit pictures.
| Know how to commission freelance photography.
| Know how to use and update an image library with metadata.
PRINT
| Know how to work with designers
MARKETING
| Know when and where to deploy marketing and when not to.
WEB
| Know how to edit and create a webpage.
| Know basic current principles of SEO and what metadata is.
| Known how to embed sharable content.
| Know that the social media is no longer about driving traffic to the website.
| Know the CIPR advice on when and how to engage with Wikipedia.
| Know the basics of Google Analytics 4 to help measure where people are coming from and what they are doing on your website.
AUDIO
| Know when and how to create a podcast.
| Know how to pitch to a podcast or a radio journalist.
VIDEO
| Know how to brief a videographer.
| Know how to work with and create brand guidelines online.
| Know what TV journalists are visual and how to pitch to them.
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
| Know how to find and connect with influencers be they online group admin, amateur photographers, local historians or food bloggers.
| Know when and how to engage with people in their own online spaces.
| Know how to build and maintain an online community.
| Know how to deal with comment, criticism and abuse.
| Know how to create, maintain and enforce social media house rules.
MEDIA RELATIONS
| Know how to log and take a media query.
| Know how to deal with a media query and its sign-off.
| Know how to build relationships with reporters.
| Know how to select a news, stock or library image for a media release.
| Know how to make a complaint.
SOCIAL MEDIA
| Know how social media and customer services work.
| Know how to search social media for groups.
| Know how to create thought leadership content.
OPEN DATA
| Know what open data is and what obligations your organisation has.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
| Know how to safely use large language models to generate ideas and content within UK Government guidance.
| Know how to identify fake images and video.
| Know how copyright and GDPR affects the creation of all content.
INTERNAL COMMS
| Know face-to-face, intranet, social and print channels and which is most effective for each task.
| Know who is best fronting different internal messages be that the head of the paid service, a manager or a colleague.
I hope this list helps you think of what your comms needs to look like in 2025.
