Yesterday (Monday January 23), The North West Star editorial team held its first Facebook Live episode of “Elevenses”.
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“Elevenses” is the what the Brits call morning tea and the idea is for us to discuss the news and events of the week ahead affecting the north west, as well as a look back to the week just gone.
We have used Facebook Live in the past – it was something we introduced to our audience in 2016 reporting live on the scene from local events.
However this is the first time we’ll be using it in a “studio” setting, though I use the word studio advisedly and it will really just be a meeting room in the North West Star office.
We hope it will be informative and fun, and we encourage our audience to like us on Facebook and watch live if you’ve got the time, or catch up later if you don’t.
It is scheduled for 11am because that is our print deadline for Tuesday’s paper (it has to be that early so we can guarantee we can make the afternoon plane to Isa).
Because of that, I can’t actually tell you here and now whether it has been successful or not.
However this is something we have to try out.
I keep telling anyone who will listen to me that the North West Star is no longer a newspaper but a news organisation.
Yes, we’ve still got a print newspaper – and I thank everyone who has bought today’s paper – you are helping to pay our bills and keep us afloat.
But increasingly the younger audience no longer lives in print.
Most people under 40 do not like inky stained fingers and are immune to the joys of flicking through a paper while having a cuppa.
For better or worse, our major audience is now on Facebook.
And as much as I distrust what Mr Zuckerberg and co are doing – especially with our data – I’m not in a position to wage a one-man-war against them.
And for all of Facebook’s faults it offers a safe space for people to engage in the public sphere, so that is where we will be doing our live broadcast (Not sure if “broad” is the right word, but I’ll run with it for now). Send your feedback to derek.barry@fairfaxmedia.com.au DB