Kickstarting a New Era for Mancunian Local News

The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF), NewsNow, the UK’s independent news discovery platform, and Open Data Manchester are delighted to be hosting a workshop in Manchester to support a new era in local news on the 14th November.

This follows successful events in Glasgow and Folkestone.

At a time when many local papers have closed, consolidated or reduced their services, leaving a troubling deficit in local democracy, PINF and NewsNow are setting out to support communities in solving the problem for themselves.

Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director of PINF, said: “I’m thrilled to be hosting our third workshop in Manchester. Local news in the UK is in a state of turmoil. Legacy newspaper publishers are under huge pressure, and emerging providers are struggling to compete for attention with social media. By working in these very different locations across the UK, we aim to support a new era in local news that truly serves communities.”

Locals from a variety of backgrounds, including business leaders, civil society organisations, funders and people with lived experience, will come together to discuss a shared vision and create a Local News Plan for the future of public interest news in their communities.

Open Data Manchester, an organisation for people who are interested in realising the potential of open data to benefit citizens, business and public bodies in Greater Manchester, is joining PINF and NewsNow to run this workshop.

In total, PINF is hosting six Local News Plan workshops this autumn in Folkestone, Glasgow, Bristol, Newry, Manchester and Bangor (Wales). The six resulting Plans will be hosted on a dedicated website, and lessons from the project will be shared with policymakers and philanthropists.

Struan Bartlett, CEO of NewsNow, said: “We are delighted to be working with PINF on this important project. We know a healthy society needs a healthy news diet, yet when it comes to local news it sometimes feels like we’re on starvation rations. Sustainably funded public interest journalism is vital for healthy local democracies. Rather than parachuting in money or solutions, we believe that by getting people on the ground to talk to each other, communities can work out for themselves what they want from local news and how best to incentivise and support local providers to deliver it.”

PINF and NewsNow expect an outcome of the project to be a Local News Plan template that can be replicated and adapted to other localities, building support for public interest news from local funders and philanthropists, investors, business communities and policymakers; and increasing the prospects for sustainability for public interest news providers across the UK.

NewsNow has provided the funding for the project.

To find out more, and to register your interest in a Local News Plan for your area, visit https://www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/post/local-news-plans-a-project-of-pinf-with-newsnow

PINF and NewsNow Announce Dates for Upcoming Local News Plan Workshops

The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) and NewsNow, the UK’s independent news discovery platform, are pleased to announce dates for their project to support a ‘new era’ in local news in five locations around the UK’s four nations.

This follows a successful beginning in Folkestone, where local individuals from a variety of backgrounds, like business leaders, civil society organisations, funders and people with lived experience, came together to discuss a shared vision for the future of public interest news in their community.

PINF will be hosting the additional Local News Plan workshops on the following dates:

- 4th Nov - Glasgow

- 14th Nov - Manchester

- 16th Nov - Bangor

- 23rd Nov - Bristol

- 30th Nov - Newry

A spokesperson said: "At a time when many local papers have closed, consolidated or cut back on their services, leaving a troubling deficit in local democracy, PINF and NewsNow are setting out to support communities in solving the problem for themselves."

Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director of PINF, added: “I’m delighted to host our second Local News Plan event in Glasgow. 

"Local news in the UK is currently in a state of turmoil. Legacy newspaper publishers are under huge pressure, and emerging providers are struggling to compete for attention with social media. By working in these very different locations across the UK, we aim to support a new era in local news that genuinely and truly serves local communities.”

The project is being led for PINF by media consultant Sameer Padania, with local ‘stewards’ supporting the planning process in each individual area. The stewards will work to identify local stakeholders, and invite these stakeholders to a workshop to create a Local News Plan for their own area.

The six resulting Plans will be hosted on a dedicated website, and lessons from the project will be shared with policymakers and philanthropists.

Struan Bartlett, CEO of NewsNow, said: “We're delighted to work with PINF on this important project. We know a healthy society needs a healthy news diet, yet when it comes to local news it sometimes feels like we’re on starvation rations. 

"Sustainably funded public interest journalism is vital for healthy local democracies. Rather than parachuting in money or solutions, we believe by getting people on the ground to talk to each other, communities can work out for themselves what they want from local news and how best to incentivise and support local providers to deliver it locally.”

PINF and NewsNow expect an outcome of the project to be a Local News Plan template that can be replicated and adapted to other localities, building support for public interest news from local funders and philanthropists, investors, business communities and policymakers; and increasing the prospects for sustainability for public interest news providers across the UK.

NewsNow has provided the funding for the project.

To find out more, and to register your interest in a Local News Plan for your area please visit https://www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/post/local-news-plans-a-project-of-pinf-with-newsnow.

Be That Writer believes that this could hopefully provide paid writing opportunities for freelance writers within those areas.

Celsys Opens International Comic/Manga School Contest 2023 for Students Worldwide

Celsys is officially launching the International Comic/Manga School Contest 2023 for students worldwide, accepting comics and illustrations on the theme of Light and Darkness. 

This contest will offer future professional comic artists a chance to learn new techniques and to make contacts with the comic industry early in their careers. School registration begins today, November 1, with entries from students to be accepted from December 1.

Prizes include cash prizes of up to $3,300, Wacom drawing tablets, and licenses for the Clip Studio Paint comic and illustration drawing app, plus opportunities to have winning entries published by sponsors.

Comic industry companies globally are sponsoring the contest, including SHUEISHA, KADOKAWA, BookLive, Ki-oon, pixiv, and Wacom, with operational support from NGOs like The Japan Cartoonists Association, Manga Japan, and the Digital Manga Association.

International Comic/Manga School Contest 2023

https://www.clipstudio.net/promotion/comiccontest/en/

The judging panel for this year’s contest will be led by professional creators and representatives from sponsors. Winning entries receive detailed critique, which offers the winners and other participating students a springboard to improve their skills. 

Previous contestants said, “I appreciated a lot of the constructive criticism that the judges offered so that next time I try making a comic again, I can keep these thoughts in mind” and “The comments picked up on parts that I missed and will really help me in my future creative activities! It was nice how there was careful feedback for each page.”

Launched back in 2018 as a contest for European artists, the International Comic/Manga School Contest is now in its sixth year. Last year, the contest garnered over 1,600 compelling entries from 1,317 participating schools in 90 countries and regions. The winning entries are translated into English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean for readers all over the world to enjoy.

Through these events, Celsys, together with leading figures in comic culture both in Japan and across the globe, continues to support young creators aspiring to become professional artists.

CELSYS, Inc.

https://www.clipstudio.net/en/

Celsys, with a mission of “Creating a more passionate world,” provides solutions for creative activities through the “Clip Studio Paint” app for illustration, manga, webtoon, and animation production, the “Clip Studio” web service, and the “Clip Studio Reader” e-book solution. Celsys supports people all over the world to better enjoy creating and all the experiences that come with it.

https://www.celsys.com/en/

Deadly measures used in some detective novels

I am a fan of mystery novels, detective novels and (some) thriller novel and short stories.

In fact, I have written some short stories in the mystery and detective genres, some of which are published on this blog.

Many mystery writers write about murders. Whilst it's perfectly possible to write a good, workman like detective novel that does not include a murder,  these can be a bit pedestrian. After all, Dame Agatha Christie wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, and I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of them, perhaps all, even, involved at least one murder, perhaps more in some of her novels.

In her novels and short stories hapless victims met their death in a wide variety of ways. Though poisoning does appear to have been her top choice.

Other of her victims were drowned, garrotted with the string of their own musical instrument, stabbings, bashings over the head, strangulation, shootings, heavy objects dropped from a height, for example.

However, all of the murders in the fictional works of Agatha Christie are well-researched and are all valid and "doable" for want of a better word.

In fact on several occasions murderers and attempted murderers have been found out because medical staff reading an Agatha Christie story or novel had realised the symptoms shown by a patient in their care were exactly those shown by a murder victim in an Agatha Christie story. Some murderers were also suspected of using some of her stories as an inspiration for their crimes. 

This link takes one to an excellent thesis on Agatha Christie and her novels by Darina Slámová

https://is.muni.cz/th/q3enn/Murderers_and_Their_Methods_in_Agatha_Christie_s_Detective_Stories.docx 

Agatha Christie's knowledge of poisons came from her studying and becoming qualified as an apothecary's assistant. 

So all her murders (especially those involving drugs, poisons or medicines) were 100% accurate and fully accorded with scientific and medical knowledge. 

However, some novelists have played fast and loose with the murders they describe in their novels and they created ridiculous and highly convoluted murder methods that were fantastical and, based on scientific principles, doomed to fail.

Examples that I can think of was a mad scientist who invented a specially designed gun that shoots specially designed projectiles fashioned of dry ice, thus leaving no clues as to what had actually shot the victims.

There was also a mad scientist who invented a special high pressure glass-lidded murder box that literally squashed people so effectively that their corpses were paper thin and left laying around the streets for some reason or another. 

There seems to be a theme here of mad scientists designing mad murder methods for reasons that seem perfectly logical to themselves but nobody else, including the bewildered readers.

And there's also the short story when the wife of a police detective murders her abusive husband by smashing him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb and then cooks it and feeds it to his CID colleagues who are investigating his murder and thus they inadvertently devour the evidence! 

(The rather dashing image used to illustrate this blog post is used courtesy of  OpenClipart-Vectors and Pixabay)

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PINF and NewsNow team up to support ‘new era’ in local news

The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) has announced a new partnership with NewsNow, the UK's independent news discovery platform, to support a ‘new era’ in local news.

At a time when many local papers have closed, consolidated or cut back their services, leaving a troubling deficit in local democracy, PINF and NewsNow are setting out to support communities in solving the problem for themselves in a pilot project that will be run in six locations around the UK’s four nations.

Communities in the six locations will be supported to produce ‘Local News Plans’ for their area. The Local News Plans will set out a shared vision for the future of public interest news in each area, and will include commitments from stakeholders including local politicians, business leaders, civil society organisations, funders and people with lived experience of relevant issues.

Jonathan Heawood, who is the Executive Director of PINF, said: “Local news in the UK is in a state of turmoil. Legacy newspaper publishers are under huge pressure, and emerging providers are struggling to compete for attention with social media. By working in six very different locations across the UK, we aim to support a new era in local news that truly serves communities.”

The project is being led for PINF by media consultant Sameer Padania, with local ‘stewards’ supporting the planning process in each area. The stewards will identify local stakeholders, and invite these stakeholders to a workshop to create a Local News Plan for their area.

PINF is hosting Local News Plan workshops this autumn in Bangor (Wales), Bristol, Folkestone, Glasgow, Manchester and Newry. The six resulting Plans will be hosted on a dedicated website, and lessons from the project will be shared with policymakers and philanthropists.

The first workshop will be held in Folkestone on Thursday 29 September 2022.

Struan Bartlett, CEO of NewsNow, said: “We are delighted to be working with PINF on this important project. We know a healthy society needs a healthy news diet, yet when it comes to local news it sometimes feels like we’re on starvation rations. 

"Sustainably funded public interest journalism is vital for healthy local democracies. Rather than parachuting in money or solutions, we believe that by getting people on the ground to talk to each other, communities can work out for themselves what they want from local news and how best to incentivise and support local providers to deliver it.”

PINF and NewsNow expect an outcome of the project to be a Local News Plan template that can be replicated and adapted to other localities, building support for public interest news from local funders and philanthropists, investors, business communities and policymakers; and increasing the prospects for sustainability for public interest news providers across the UK.

NewsNow has provided the funding for the project.

To find out more, and to register your interest in a Local News Plan for your area, visit https://www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/post/local-news-plans-a-project-of-pinf-with-newsnow

What is The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF)? It's a charity supporting public interest news organisations to tell the stories that matter. At PINF, we aim to bring out the value of public interest news of every kind. Through grants, leadership development and research, we unlock the potential of public interest news providers to strengthen our democracy.

The Public Interest News Foundation is a registered charity, no. 1191397, and a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales, no. 12320800.

www.publicinterestnews.org.uk

What is NewsNow?  NewsNow is a UK news organisation using technology to support and promote credible, independent and public interest journalism, since 1997. Its website NewsNow.co.uk is the UK’s leading independent news discovery platform and a global top 50 news website.

www.newsnow.co.uk/about.

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