Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins (centre) and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne (right) speak to Saddleworth News at Dove Stone Reservoir ahead of the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.
Lots of people have been in touch with Saddleworth News over the past few weeks, ever since I announced that I was considering options for the future of the site.
I’ve had many messages of support and encouragement from local folk, for which thank you. I also received expressions of interest from various parties, including individuals and commercial companies.
But I’m very pleased to be able to announce that I have agreed with University Campus Oldham, part of the University of Huddersfield, that its journalism students will take on Saddleworth News.
I’m convinced this offers the best future for the site, because it should help make it sustainable if I go back to work and am no longer able to be involved. It’s also good news for the community, because Saddleworth News will continue to be a source of original journalism about our area.
More details will be revealed in the next few weeks. But in the meantime, here’s the joint statement issued today:
ONE OF THE TOP local news websites in the country, Saddleworth News, is joining forces with University Campus Oldham.
Students from the Digital Journalism degree course at UCO, which is part of the University of Huddersfield, will take over the running of Saddleworth News this autumn, gaining valuable experience as well as securing the site’s future.
Saddleworth News was started in February 2010 by locally-based journalist Richard Jones. Since then it’s attracted a monthly audience of more than 22,000 unique visitors, and came to national attention for its award-winning coverage of the Phil Woolas scandal and Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.
Richard has combined running Saddleworth News with his role as a stay-at-home dad to his young daughter. He announced in July that he was examining options for the site’s future, as he hopes to put her into nursery and return to full-time work soon.
Richard said: “I was worried about what might happen to the site if I went back to work and couldn’t give as much time and energy to it.”
He added: “I had expressions of interest from commercial companies, but I’m absolutely delighted to be able to hand the site on to the University. With the students providing original journalism, this is the best outcome for the community.”
Digital Journalism Course Leader, Caroline Pringle, said: “This was too good an opportunity for us to ignore.”
She added: “The University is always looking for innovative ways to both teach our students, and get more involved in the local area. I’m looking forward to seeing how the project develops over the coming months.”
Saddleworth News has previously been involved with The Oldham College, with co-produced video bulletins which have been published on the site over the past year.
Richard said: “I’d like to thank John Eccles and his team at the college for all their excellent work, and wish them every success for the future.”
You can read July’s post about the future of Saddleworth News, along with accompanying comments, here.
That’s about as good a result as we could have hoped for - both for the site and for you (it’d have been terrible seeing it fold wouldn’t it?)
Good choice fella. To the Uni students, good luck! I look forward to reading your work!
Cheers
Chris
Phew!
So Saddleworth News is safely staying with us.
Of the options presented, I think this is probably the best one all round.
I do hope you’ll continue to remain involved Richard, I’m sure the students could learn an awful lot from your professionalism and dedication to keeping up with local news and events.
Let’s also hope that more people involved means that there will be even more great coverage of local news.
Here’s to a the next era of Saddleworthnews.com!
Thank you so much Richard for all your hard work over the last couple of years to make this site the success it rightly deserves to be!
Personally, i think its a bad idea.
But i am happy that SN is being kept alive, but i fail to see how they will tie it in to the course, and if they force people that probaly dont live in Saddleworth to go to saddleworth and source news. I think you should of made up a pool of proposals, eg; from dedicated groups, that live arround here, and they could of have reporters based in each area uploading news and choose the best proposal.
This is what i think you should of done, but if you think this is the best idea for the site then well done, good luck in what you do in the future.
Thanks Richard for the past 1 1/2 years. Good Luck to you and your family in what you do next.
J
look forward to some thought provoking editorials and some new features to ,good choice
A good solution that hopefully secures the site (and its unbiased coverage) for the future.
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