How-Do is becoming a compelling read, despite the fact that it’s about the North West media scene – although running a PR consultancy in Leeds and originally coming from the Lake District does mean I have a foot in the North West and Yorkshire.

How-Do has just published its list of the 100 most influential media people in the North West. I was particularly pleased to see BBC Radio Cumbria’s Nigel Dyson on the list. Nigel was one of the people that first sparked my interest in communications and is partially responsible for me going into public relations.

BBC Radio Cumbria is exactly what local radio should be – it is both entertaining and very relevant to its unique local audience. Radio Cumbria Lamb Bank is a must listen when it’s attempting to match up orphaned lambs with ewes – yes really, it is better than it sounds and a really useful community service.

UPDATE: Just gone further into the list and found Neil Hodgkinson, who I remember as the editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post and is now doing a brilliant job at Cumbrian Newspapers (or CN as I think we’re now meant to call it).

Several of the North West blogs I read have alerted me to How Do, a new online venture by Nick Jaspen (founder of Newsco publishers of the Insider series of business titles, and more recently the failed North West Enquirer).

How Do looks very interesting and Nick told HackFlack that he sees it as “the online hub for the thriving media community across the North West”. As a Cumbrian who ended up on the wrong side of the Pennines I don’t really hold with all the North West v. Yorkshire rivalry, so I hope that How Do rapidly expands across the Pennines.

I wish the venture well and will watch with interest.

I’m off to Liverpool tomorrow to speak at an Arts Council Get Digital conference on social media. Rather than use the usual dull PowerPoint (not that mine are ever dull!) I’ve put together a list of prompts using del.icio.us. This means I’ll be delivering it live and hoping that FACT’s internet connection doesn’t let me down.

Using del.icio.us makes it easy for delegates to go back to the list after the conference and explore the links at their leisure.

The conference is organised by Don’t Panic, who are also behind the New PR conference (PDF brochure) that we’re repeating in Edinburgh next Wednesday (still a few places left if you want to book). New PR conference speakers Philip Young and Chris Rushton from the University of Sunderland are also on the bill tomorrow.

Stephen Davies recently asked “What does the future hold for the regional press?”. I’m actually quite optimistic about the future of the regional press and even more importantly I believe that it is vital that we all give it as much professional support as we can because it is essential to the future of society and local communities. The old mantra “think global, act local” is even more important today than it ever was.

Regional media in the UK is actually making a pretty good job of adapting to the changes introduced by social media and consumer generated media. In many cases they are well ahead of the nationals as these three examples show:

> Cumbrian Newspaper Group – the Evening News & Star in Carlisle was actually one of the first UK newspaper to introduce blogs on its site with contributions from readers. Last year Nick Turner, deputy editor, was interviewed about it by UK Press Gazette.

> Liverpool Daily Post has launched a standalone business news website that features RSS feeds and a weekly podcast with business editor Bill Gleason.

> Even my local weekly paper the Wakefield Express (where Philip Young started his journalistic career) has recently launched blogs and reprints snippets from them every week. This isn’t just a local initiative and is part of a bigger Johnson Press project.

If you think about what people are actually interested in and talk about down the pub or in the post office queue then it is often local stuff. Much of the massive growth in consumer generated media will be local and this could actually be a benefit for regional media. They can unearth stories that might have escaped them and highlight or expand on them.

The elephant in the room as Richard Bailey pointed out in a comment is classified advertising. Local papers depend on it and need to get a slice of it as it moves on-line. The threat isn’t actually the consumer generated media but e-bay and craigslist.

There is research that points to the fact that regional media is far more trusted by people than the national press. One client once won a million pound contract as a result of a lead from a story about a charity bike ride in a local weekly paper. The MD of the customer lived in the same village as the MD of the client. He’d never heard of the firm despite the fact that thanks to our work it regularly appeared in the trade and business press that he read. The difference was he liked his local paper and read more of it for enjoyment while he simply skimmed the business/trade press and read what he had to.

And finally on a semi-related topic dealing with the regional media is one of many areas where regional PR firms beat London PR firms. Most regional PR professionals can put together an effective regional media campaign anywhere in the country. It’s not just about knowing your local area but more about understanding what makes regional journalists tick. Speak to any regional journalist and they will be able to tell you horror stories of calls from clueless London PRs trying to pitch a story that doesn’t stand a snowball in hells chance of appearing.

My post on Popular blogs suck has turned out to be one of my more popular posts. As a result I’ve had a few people asking me what is actually on my ‘Must Read’ list. Well first of all my ‘Must Read’ also includes mainstream media but I’m only going to list the blogs here:

A Shel of My Former Self – US corporate comms expert and co-presenter of For Immediate Release
AccMan Pro – Dennis Howlett on innovation for professional accountants (or whatever takes his fancy!)
BusinessMatters – Cumbrian accountant Stuart Jones blogging about SME/SMBs in the English Lake District
CorporatePR – fellow New PR conference speaker Elizabeth Albrycht
David Miliband – Secretary of State for Environment & Rural Affairs, and the UK’s first blogging cabinet minister
Democracy Lab – new ideas for citizen engagement, both online and face to face
Desirable Roasted Coffee – IABC member Alan Jenkins in Denmark, a blog so good to look at (and read!) it deserves a visit not just an RSS subscription
Guy Clapperton on the Media – prolific freelance journalist who writes good stuff on IT, small business and Dr Who!
Guido Fawkes’ blog – scurrilous, nasty, right-wing Westminster political tittle-tattle, but amusing none the less
hyku | blog – Josh Hallett in Florida, one of the few blogging social media consultants who knows his stuff, rather than the ‘blogs are it’ hype spouted by most
Iain Dale’s Diary – political diary by a former Conservative parliamentary candidate – a wittier more intelligent Guido
IT Sneak- a very hit and miss blog from IT Week magazine, a keep reading it because I think it must get better!
IT Week Blog Gary Flood – outspoken IT freelance journalist blogging for one of the UK’s three weekly IT mags
Karen Bruce’s Rothwell blog – my wife, of course I read it, it’s fantastic!
Better Communications Results – Lee Hopkins’ off-beat look at communicating with passion
Mediations – the thoughtful and ethical PR lecturer Philip Young at the University of Sunderland and the brains behind the New PR conference series
Morgan McLintic on PR – Lewis PR’s Silicon Valley-based vice-president
Never Trust A Hippy – Poptel Technology co-founder Paul Evans on democracy and online communications
Neville Hobson – Amsterdam-based communicator, blogger, podcaster and fellow speaker at the New PR conference
Pocket PC Thoughts – I’ve recently switched from Palm to Windows Mobile 5 and need to learn about it
POP! PR Jots – blogging PR pro Jeremy Pepper who has left self-employment to work for Weber Shandwick
PR Blogger – Stephen Davies, the extraordinary blogging PR student from the University of Sunderland
PR Opinions – Tom Murphy, Head of PR for Microsoft Ireland, and one of the first PR bloggers – still one of the few that actually talks sense and shares my view about putting blogs in their proper context as part of the comms mix
PR Studies – PR lecturer Richard Bailey at Leeds Metropolitan University
PR. Differently – New York PR man and skydiver Peter Shankman
Recess Monkey – yet more Westminster gossip, this time from an anonymous assistant to a Labour MP
Simonsays – fellow Yorkshire PR consultant Simon Collister who lives about five minutes away
Let’s talk business – a blog by my client Softalk for its customers and prospects in small and medium size businesses
Teblog – veteran freelance journalist, software publisher and media trainer David Tebbutt
The Business Editors – team blog by business journalists at Caspian Publishing (Real Business, Real Finance etc)
The New View From Object Towers – Andrew B. Smith, a fellow technology PR specialist
Tom Watson MP – the UK’s first blogging MP. Has become rather quiet recently, but I believe it is more to do with becoming a father than his appointment as a government whip (and in the latest re-shuffle now a junior defence minister)
Windows Mobile UK – another attempt to learn about Windows Mobile 5 (maybe I should ask Tom for some tips)

You can download an OPML file of these feeds here. You can then import it into your preferred news reader.

Technorati : OPML, PR, blogs, business, public relations, top 100 blogs

Despite the RSS hype (and I’m one of the guilty parties) e-mail is still the way the vast majority of people receive their news or ezines. FeaturesExec reports that North West Business Insider has just launched a weekly email news bulletin. Unfortunately I can find no reference to it on the publisher’s website.

The Insider series is probably the best group of regional business magazines that I’ve seen. They currently cover Yorkshire, North West, Midlands and Wales.

Technorati : RSS, business, ezine, media, north west, yorkshire

UK Press Gazette reports that Hartlepool Mail editor Paul Napier has been named editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post. The appointment follows the departure of Neil Hodgkinson to become editorial director of Cumbrian Newspapers, where he started work this week.

Napier has worked for Johnston Press almost his entire career. Prior to the Mail, where he has been since May 2003, he edited the Scarborough Evening News, the Banbury Guardian and was editor-in-chief for the Bucks Herald.

The YEP, which won evening newspaper of the year in 2001, has a circulation 43,066 higher than that of the Mail at 63,265.

XP: A PR Guru’s Musings, YorkshireBizTalk, Stuart’s Soapbox

Stephen Davies has tagged me with the four things meme so here goes:

Four jobs I’ve had:

Organic waste disposal technician (toilet cleaner)
Labour Party Regional Officer
Politician (elected councillor)
PR consultant

Four movies I can watch over and over:

Lord of the Rings (OK, really three but I like them all)
Get Carter (1971 of course)
The Italian Job (1969 of course)
Land and Freedom

Four TV shows I love to watch:

Sea of Souls
Spooks
The Avengers
Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister

Four places I’ve visited on holiday:

Boston, USA
Marrakech, Morocco
Lille, France
Lebanon

Four favourite dishes:

Stuart’s home made ragu
Stuart’s home made lamb kebabs / chops
Karen’s home made chicken dopiaza
Karen’s home made sticky chicken

Four places I’ve lived:

Ennerdale, English Lake District
Chopwell Woods, North East England (in a house in the middle of the forest!)
Southampton (as a student)
Leeds (various parts including Headingley, Rodley, Chapeltown, Chapel Allerton,  Woodhouse, Swillington and now Rothwell)

Four sites I visit daily frequently (hard this one as I now mainly read RSS feeds in FeedDemon so I’ve changed it to frequently):

The Labour Party
IDeA Knowledge
Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
FeaturesExec

Four places I’d rather be:

Ennerdale, English Lake District
Marrakech, Morocco
Boston, USA
There’s no place like home

Four people I’m tagging:

Stuart Rock
Guy Clapperton
Karen Bruce
Max Niederhofer

Technorati: four things