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Readers urged to submit more content as daily relaunches

Readers have been urged to “take up their own column inches” as part of a regional daily’s relaunch.

The new look Burton Mail has been released for the first time on today with a 96-page edition, promising more in-depth stories, and “bigger, bolder” pictures.

A new style and layout also features in the paper, which has now risen in price by five pence to 55p, while extra sections have been added including a new 24-page Weekend section.

The relaunch follows last year’s change of editor which saw Emma Turton taking over from Kevin Booth following his move to the Leicester Mercury.

The front page of the new-look paper, pictured below, saw the launch of a campaign aimed at remembering the war heroes of Burton-upon-Trent and the surrounding area.

The Pennies for our Heroes campaign is calling on Mail readers to donate their small change to help raise cash to plant memorial trees in honour of those who died in the Second World War.

Burton 2

An editorial on the Local World-owned title’s website states: “The new style and layout will enable us to create more colourful pages and give our readers a voice through the newspaper which has been a part of the area for more than a century.

“We want the paper to be a genuinely local resource of news – not just through our team of reporters but through you, the readers.

“We’d like you all to see the Burton Mail as your platform to congratulate, challenge, promote and publicise. We welcome all contributions. Clubs, teams, business owners, students and photographers will all be encouraged to take up their own column inches.

“Our aim is to be an important part of the community so when you turn the pages each day you will see pictures sent in by Burton and South Derbyshire people, and stimulating and interesting columns, written by our readers too.

“We love Burton and South Derbyshire. We’re proud of the area and we know you are, too. This will be clear in the news we bring you, day by day.

“Of course sad stories happen but we will endeavour to bring you good news too.”

 

28 comments

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  • April 25, 2015 at 8:37 am
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    This sounds a desperate space filler. I hope they bother to sub it, as they don’t seem to on JP papers.

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  • April 25, 2015 at 4:10 pm
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    Any old crap, we will take it..blurred photos the lot. Then you can be safe in the knowledge that you have put another professional photographer out of work..and by the way did we mention we would charge you for the privaledge. Local World are a complete joke.

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  • April 25, 2015 at 5:16 pm
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    Ah…the dawn of another DIY snooze paper……..

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  • April 25, 2015 at 6:48 pm
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    Holy mackerel, so it’s come to this – a do-it-yourself newspaper full of reader-generated garbage no-one will want to read. Journalism, where art thou?
    Can’t hang about – I’m just off to Nero to make myself a cup of coffee, then on to the barber’s to cut my own hair. Waterstone’s are stocking a great novel with blank pages you can write yourself.
    And what abut Thornton’s? They give you a recipe and you can make your own chocolates on the spot. It’s the new thing, apparently.

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  • April 25, 2015 at 6:50 pm
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    Before some lonely little saddo spots it, ‘abut’ should be ‘about’.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 8:30 am
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    Might has well just turn the comments section off this story before it starts. Or save the usual crowd a lot of time by just copying and pasting the comments from any of the previous articles that involve readers sending in stuff and having it sold back to them etc etc

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  • April 27, 2015 at 9:59 am
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    Hey, Crackington, it should be ‘about’ not ‘abut’. And Halifax Worrier, I think this is a great plan. Readers have many profound things to say (just look at various letters pages) and I am going to submit a poem myself. Ode To Spring: “The sun is out and it’s getting warmer/And all the bees are going aswarmer…” But you’ll have to get the paper to read all 112 stanzas.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 10:07 am
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    You don’t get it boys and girls, do you? It is all about empowerment of the reader.
    And I won a crushing victory at Waterloo.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 10:08 am
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    ‘…your platform…’ is just the kind of language journalists should be using.
    “bigger and bolder’ pictures, so no more stock photos of court buildings, traffic snarl ups or grip and grins. Unlike on its website.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 10:11 am
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    LOL what an embarrassment, bet the editor of this to be newsletter looks forward to choosing with submitted UGC pic and story goes on the front page.

    And this lot dare to slag off the BBC for its dominance in this market .

    No investment means no stories being found!!!

    Goodbye local papers it’s all over if you want the public to write it…..

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  • April 27, 2015 at 10:19 am
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    Agree with jaded snapper’s comment, but privilege is a word that deserves spell check or a glance in the dictionary if you want to be taken seriously.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 11:08 am
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    Sounds like this revamped publication has escaped rather than being released.
    Do the Local World suits really believe all the management-speak they are always uttering?
    Still, I suppose readers get the sort of publication they deserve, these days.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 11:48 am
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    ‘User-generated’….they just don’t get it, do they?

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  • April 27, 2015 at 12:15 pm
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    yet again the written media pleading poverty ,bosses make money off the backs of freebies,
    this is the press’s answer to zero hours contracts.
    if its good enough to print its good enough to pay for, both copy and images

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  • April 27, 2015 at 12:16 pm
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    Lonely little sado – you’re either an expert with a horsewhip or you left a ‘d’ out of saddo.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 3:42 pm
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    “..give readers a voice in the newspaper which has been a part of the area for more than a century.”
    “0ur aim is to be an important part of the community….”
    So readers have been ignored for 100 years and the paper is still a stranger in its own town?
    Who writes this stuff?
    Let’s hope the readers include a couple of retired subs looking for voluntary work.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 3:52 pm
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    Reminds me of supermarket self-checkouts which are apparently for ‘your convenience’, and nothing to do with cutting down on staff.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 4:25 pm
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    I’m going to launch a paper called the Dennis Waterman Tribune, where ever reader will be required to write the stories and sing the stories.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 8:14 pm
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    Sorry Old Hack – I stand corrected, I have made an error, but just the one..go read a Localworld publication and you will find plenty more.

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  • April 27, 2015 at 8:55 pm
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    Burtonians can look forward to lots of PR rubbish like the latest Slimming World weight loss yarn, uploaded for free. Oh, and are readers going to cover court, councils, inquests, health meetings and vital news stories that require professional investigation? Nope? Bye bye local newspapers…

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  • April 28, 2015 at 8:58 am
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    lou. While we are being picky there is no such expression as “for free” though millions (especially in the USA) think there is. It is either free or for nothing.
    But I do agree with what you say

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  • April 28, 2015 at 2:41 pm
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    I bumped into an old councillor contact today. He said every time he rings his local paper for them to investigate anything they invite him to “send us something in”, because they appear too busy to interview him.
    And they have not seen a reporter at a council meeting for more than a year. He knows for a fact they are missing a current big story because they never the visit his town. The UGC revolution is here and it is being noticed, but not in a positive way.
    More reporters, PLEASE.

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  • April 28, 2015 at 2:44 pm
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    Olderhack. Yes, you are being incredibly picky, as you put it. But you are right. Free it is.
    The old song wouldn’t sound the same as “The best things in life are for free.”

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  • April 28, 2015 at 7:50 pm
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    The lead story on the Burton Mail front page as shown has nothing whatsoever to do with news or journalism. It’s a desperate attempt to appear as a campaigning paper. “Stimulating … “interesting” …. “colourful” … to quote Local World’s website is the exact opposite of what readers can expect. I pity today’s journalists and editors who have to deal with this sort of rubbish. —- it’s hardly what they trained for.

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  • April 28, 2015 at 9:00 pm
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    Do these so called newspaper executives realise that they are turning once respected publications into something no more reliable for the news than Facebook and Twitter. Why would anyone pay more for an inferior ‘paltform’? They may as well just close it now. In fact, are they just looking for that excuse?

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  • April 29, 2015 at 8:34 am
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    Was the front user generated? It gives me a headache.

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