Interaction Is Key At LEP

The editor of the Lancashire Evening Post says the paper’s main task for 2008 is to make the most of its growing online community.

Simon Reynolds told media site How-Do that the Johnston Press publication has vastly enhanced its reader participation since strengthening its digital content and converging its print and online operations.

“Getting regularly over 1,000 online responses to key local footballing issues is something that’s stimulating and exciting when compared to the half dozen or so written responses such issues may have elicited just a few years ago,” he said.

Reynolds added that his main focus for next year will be looking at how to “manage the large and rapidly growing amount of participation and interaction we’re getting from the community.

“I want to join it all together in a more manageable way. You turn the tap on with the public but you’ve got to manage the subsequent flow.”

The editor also sounded an optimistic note about the future, asserting that print media groups will navigate their way through the digital transformation “and succeed before and better than most other sectors”.

He concluded: “Despite what people say about print being under threat, in reality TV and radio are facing a greater threat than newspapers.”