The future of political reporting on Merseyside
Today the ECHO reports on the huge changes that have taken place at the paper and its sister the Daily Post recently.
I thought it would be an opportune moment to blog on the changes to political reporting in Liverpool and region.
Instead of reporting separately both papers share reporters, and we now have a political desk covering the whole of Merseyside.
Previously Marc Waddington was the ECHO's political reporter and I was the Daily Post's chief reporter. Both of us now report for both titles.
We've always been proud of our political coverage, but all things can be improved, and we hope this will strengthen our reporting.
So instead of having one reporter per paper, there is now a team of two (Marc and myself) reporting for both papers. There is of course a huge difference now, in that duplication of stories should be non-existent.
Marc is the political reporter covering local government, and I am city editor also covering politics and in addition regeneration and urban affairs.
You can reach me on 0151 472 2455 or Marc on 0151 472 2403.
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David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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I wish you and Marc all the best with this new arrangement. Having cut my journalistic teeth during interminable ( yet perversely enjoyable) council meetings, I support anything that will guarantee independent scrutiny of councils, quangos and others who spend public money.It's frightening to see so many local papers cutting back on political reporting, or indeed shutting down altogether. This diminishes our democracy.
The Guardian's Polly Toynbee made similar points in today's edition of her paper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/24/regional-newspapers-lay-offs
By the way, I understand that the BBC is soon to have a designated political reporter in each of its forty-odd local radio stations - good news.
They are going to need it....