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Leader newspapers

Multicultural Media Exchange is working in partnership with Leader newspapers.  Nick Richardson, group news editor of Leader newspapers, explains their reasons for the partnership as follows:

"Leader Community Newspapers publish 33 newspapers that cover Melbourne and its outer suburbs.  Each week, more than 1.6 million people read our papers that appear in their letterboxes, free of charge.  Our papers are paid for by our advertisers, many of whom are local businesses.  But fundamentally our papers are about local stories that reflect their communities – and they cover everything from politics to sport.  Our papers are about the big issues that occur every day in small ways.

"We cannot cover everything.  There are lots of stories that we miss, simply because we do not have the staff numbers to be exhaustive in finding and writing those stories.  But we also miss stories because we cannot completely know the communities we cover.  Sometimes, for a range of reasons, we overlook important stories.  So we need to know more.  We work on the idea that news is actually 'new' – something fresh, something unique, that has not been heard, seen or read before.  You may know it, but the rest of us may not.  We want to hear that story so we can share it with others.  It could be about a new community childcare facility or the netball team’s premiership.  It could be about the menace of fast cars in your suburb or the pleasure of a family fun day at a local park.

"We are looking for those stories that can touch people, surprise them and delight them.  And some of those stories can be told in a way that is familiar to most newspaper readers – starting with the most important fact and expressed in simple, clear sentences to make sure the meaning is clear.  Or it can be a personal story that helps the reader understand at a deeper level what is going on.  In this way, we can explore the stories of families and individuals, triumph, sorrow and new beginnings.  And those stories need to come from the heart but written with the head – strong sentences that build on each other to create the story.  They can be stories about the experience of coming to Melbourne; the first taste of the new life here or the pleasure of a family re-united after months apart.

"Leader Community Newspapers publishes journalism and journalism is about news – the basic craft of who, what, where, when and how.  And stories that answer those questions are the stories that will tell communities what’s going on.  But we also publish stories that can help change views by engaging in ideas and emotions that connect directly with our readers.  We do not publish opinions or comments, other than in our letters pages or on our websites.  Instead, we aim for a range of stories that are connected by a commitment to accuracy and clarity."

  • By admin at 22 Apr 2010 - 8:43am