Manchester Evening News

Breaking and live news is at the heart of what the Manchester Evening News does. We pride ourselves on our comprehensive coverage of court cases and breaking incidents. We deliver fast and accurate information in an innovative way and are the first with exclusive lines and updates. The three examples provided here are just some of the many we could have included from the past year, with dozens of criminal cases blogged in their entirety and hundreds of breaking incidents covered live. Each example shows how we use different platforms to tell stories in a varied way to appeal to different sections of our audience.

The murder of Thomas Campbell was a huge murder case in Greater Manchester, which we’d been following since the day it happened. We live blogged the sentencing hearing; wrote numerous background pieces on conviction; wrote video and picture-led pieces on evidence from the case/police briefings; produced stories on a GMP press conference held in the wake of the case; exclusively showed the faces of the people jailed following the hearing; wrote an exclusive piece on the huge police investigation; produced a piece on Campbell’s criminal past; and more. The links provided on our supporting material provide a snapshot of our coverage. We also produced a podcast, featuring court reporter Andrew Bardsley, who has extensive knowledge of the case having covered the hearings, attended police briefings and worked his sources.

They covered a bus crash at Piccadilly Gardens. This was a huge breaking incident in our city centre which needed an incredibly fast response. Rumours as to the number of people hurt and the nature of the injuries were rife. We had a duty to report the facts quickly and accurately. We live blogged the incident in its entirety; produced fast breakout stories; wrote about the numerous Facebook posts as the situation developed were posted as well as a Facebook live; a TikTok video; and a YouTube video.

They also covered the murder of Nathaniel Shani. This was a fast-moving incident following the death of a teenager in north Manchester. A community was in shock, concerned about the wider implications, with no information from GMP for a few hours as a huge cordon was erected and emergency services attended. Our coverage got the facts out there quickly, ending widespread rumours as to the nature of the incident on social media. The next morning, our coverage continued as the incident became a murder probe. We exclusively broke the story on Nathaniel’s ID through contacts and scene work. A moving colour piece on a community in shock followed. Content was also produced for TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.