Paul Linford

1 day ago | holdthefrontpage.co.uk | Paul Linford

The BBC’s director general has called for an expansion in the local democracy reporting service to encompass other public bodies including health authorities and regonal mayors. Tim Davie, pictured, said he wanted to write “a new chapter” in the corporation’s relationship with the wider local news sector. Central to this would be an expansion in the BBC-funded LDRS to include coverage of health authorities, police and crime commissioners and regional mayors as well as local councils.

1 day ago | holdthefrontpage.co.uk | Paul Linford

Two sister newspapers from rival cities have joined forces to call for a new rail link between their respective patches. Manchester and Liverpool are traditionally seen as rivals, but their daily newspapers – both owned by Reach plc – are speaking with one voice on the need for a new train line between the two cities. Although they are less than 40 miles apart, the existing rail links between the two cities are slow and convoluted.

1 day ago | holdthefrontpage.co.uk | Paul Linford

A serving editor of seven weekly titles described as a ‘champion of local newspapers’ has died aged 60. Scott Harrison was the editor of Reach plc’s seven weekly nwespapers in the West Country, incluing the Cornishman, West Briton and Cornish Guardian. Canadian-born Scott, pictured, died earlier this month following complications from a lung-related illness. His death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from present and former colleagues at the regional publishing group.

2 days ago | paullinford.substack.com | Paul Linford

Last week I spent some time in A&E with my elderly mum after she woke up in the middle of the night complaining of chest pains. Thankfully it turned out to be a minor chest infection rather than anything heart-related, and she is now on the mend, but in the light of recent political events I do feel compelled to place on record my thanks to the staff of Derby Royal Hospital who checked her over and cared for her during our stay.

2 days ago | holdthefrontpage.co.uk | Paul Linford

A regional journalist has exposed an AI-written ‘zombie’ website which attempted to pass itself off as a relaunched version of a defunct title. The National Wales 2.0 tried to brand itself as a relaunch of The National, a Wales-wide news website launched by Newsquest in 2021 which closed the following year. But an investigation by Conor Gogarty of WalesOnline revealed that the site had been using AI tools to regurgitate other websites’ local news stories for ad money.