A Little Bit of Stone has joined the Local News Partnerships, giving us access to the BBC Shared Data Unit, BBC News Hub and the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
What is the Local News Partnerships and how does it benefit A Little Bit of Stone?
The Local News Partnerships (LNP) between the BBC and the UK regional news industry aim to support public service reporting, sustain local democracy and improve skills in journalism
Basically, that means that we can get access to these BBC funded news sources at no cost to ourselves. As team ALBOS is me and Lauren this additional resource is much appreciated!
Will we see more non Stone stories on A Little Bit of Stone?
We are committed to continuing being Stone centric, however, we will still cover borough and county-wide stories that impact the lives of Stone residents and businesses and these resources may give us additional coverage there.
What’s a Local Democracy Reporter?
These journalists are funded by the BBC as part of its latest Charter commitment but are employed by regional news organisations. In this case, our LDR’s are Kerry Ashdown and Richard Price, both employed by Reach PLC who produce the Sentinel among other national news titles.
Local Democracy Reporters cover top-tier local authorities, second-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
What will change?
Nothing other than you may see stories now with the LDR author’s credited, we still have editorial oversight on stories we publish and our existing complaints procedure is in place for anyone who has issues with a story that we’ve featured.
