Council ‘newspaper’ Hackney Today wins national PR award

Hackney Town Hall Photo: Hackney Citizen

Hackney Town Hall. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

Hackney Council bagged five awards at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Local Public Services Awards earlier this month. Among the prestigious awards was ‘external newspaper or magazine’ of the year – awarded for its fortnightly freesheet publication, Hackney Today.

The ‘newspaper’  is circulated to 108,000 homes and business in the borough and focuses on local council and other public services and the local people involved.

Judges at the awards praised the “outstanding publication,” adding that the “first class news and features are bright and lively”. They went on to say: “It provides essential services information traditional local newspapers would not normally include, unless paid for.”

The award should be gratefully received by staff at the council’s communications department who have been working hard to improve the council’s ‘Reputation Index score’. The result should also come as a relief in a department with a gross expenditure of £2,322,366 and an annual wage bill of over £200,000.

However, there are concerns about priorities amid a £60 million funding shortfall at the council.

In response to questions from the Hackney Citizen over communication spending, a spokesperson at the council said: “During these times of huge change, it is important that the council communicates regularly with residents to ensure they are aware of what’s happening, how they will be affected and what support is available to them from the council.”

The spokesperson added: “It is important that communications provides a value for money service which is why it has already made significant savings.”

The department plans to reduce costs by £300,000 over the course of this financial year. These savings will be made alongside other cuts taking place over the next three years to fill the £60 million funding gap.

Fortunately for its readers, it is unlikely that the award-winning Hackney Today will be affected by cutbacks as the income generated from external advertising in the 30-page freesheet contributes towards the cost of the “outstanding” production.

At the public relations awards ceremony Hackney Council was also handed awards for ‘leaflet or flyer of the year’, ‘best campaign (making the 2011 census count for Hackney)’, ‘census communication’ and ‘communicators of the year’.

There were 16 awards in total, 11 of which Hackney Council did not make the shortlist, including ‘media relations excellence’, ‘consultation excellence’ and ‘PR on a shoestring’.

12 Comments

  1. Tony Harms on Thursday 27 October 2011 at 13:39

    Hackney Lib Dems would like to extend our own congratulations to Hackney Council for the Public Relations award won by Hackney Today. It is indeed extraordinary for a political party to be able to issue a regular PR sheet and have it paid for by Hackney electors. The “lively” publication costs the borough dear, and not only in money.

    Hackney Today costs people in the borough nearly a third of a million pounds a year. This is enough to pay the cancelled Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for over 200 of Hackney’s most deprived students.

    In September 2010, in a freedom of information statement, the Council claimed that the cost of publishing its statutory notices in the Hackney Gazette: “would have been £543,894. The cost saving to the Council in using its own publication was £324,336.” This was untrue. The cost of alternative advertising would have been £180,000.

    Scrapping Hackney Today would imake savings of £314,800 (projected cost of production 2010-2011 £496,836 less £180,00 for alternative statutory advertising). The actual savings may be reduced by the loss of external advertising revenue but on the Council’s figures, are still around £160,000.

    By taking local advertising revenue and publishing notices of local events and happenings, Hackney Today also weakens the finances and the appeal of independent local media. It helps to stifle any independent and critical voice that might examine the council’s actions and policies.

    In Lib Dem controlled Sutton the ruling party also puts out a six week newsletter telling the electors everything the Council does for them. But it is paid for by the party – not the electors.



  2. hackneyartist on Thursday 27 October 2011 at 15:42

    And on top of all that Tony, it’s a very good local newspaper.



  3. pat on Thursday 27 October 2011 at 18:27

    The only local newspaper with no letters page in it



  4. Benjamin on Friday 28 October 2011 at 08:20

    The only local “newspaper” that never reports any bad news.



  5. Mark Trotter on Saturday 29 October 2011 at 22:21

    Hear hear Tony Harms

    Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Local Public Services Awards, what a joke

    These sham awards go to the council that books the most tables at the bash using taxpayers money. Hackney Toady aka Pravda



  6. Jed Keenan on Sunday 30 October 2011 at 06:03

    A fundamental misunderstanding of all media markets states that a public sector service provider reduces the profitability of commercial service providers such as Archant and Citizen Media Limited. Is the debate about improving the pretty hopeless editorial policy and media sales staff, or closing public media generally, such as the BBC?

    Do any Hackneyites really want to advertise statutory notices in the Hackney Gazette, which is owned by a company that has no problem accepting money from the British National Party to print their advertising during next year’s regional election campaign? (See my link) Or maybe it’s the Hackney Citizen our Council turns to as the commercial media service for local government information such as this inexplicably crass clod from its front page no less:
    ‘The council has initiated the process of identifying areas where cuts can be made. Discussions at a recent council meeting (5 September) indicated that adult social care may be one of the first areas to be targeted’.
    Hackneyites relying on ‘adult social care’ to maintain a minimum quality of life terrorised with complete bloody impunity by this very website.

    Would Hackneyites prefer to have a bi-monthly magazine such as the anaemic Sutton Scene and our Council to pay either a ‘politically neutral’ corporation with a fascist client or Citizen Media Limited with its politically motivated loose cannon naivety? That is unless the Hackney Citizen has now stooped to cynically terrorising Hackneyites in just the same way that the Hackney Gazette does? For example this week’s front page splash from the Hackney Gazette; fox bites child terrorises parents and generates profit/fox didn’t bite child is what actually happened.



  7. Charles on Tuesday 1 November 2011 at 22:51

    I’d be happy to pay a few pence extra in council tax to put a stop to HT’s relentless drip feed of unchallengeable spin and crass Olympics marketing (amazing how they manage to get the O word onto almost every page).
    Unfortunately having a mass propaganda channel immune to any oversight by either the Press Complaints Commission or Advertising Standards Authority is never going to be given up willingly.



  8. pat on Wednesday 2 November 2011 at 00:07

    Perhaps the article in the Citizen regarding the Top Boy tv series about sums up Hackney Councils policy on what should be publicised and what shouldnt.Apparently the mayor thought that the series would be bad press.So if the gazette or citizen doesnt report what is really going on your not going to hear it from the Council.



  9. The Great Smell Of Brute on Thursday 3 November 2011 at 09:06

    @Pat: that’s because Mayor Pipe and his merry little Blairite clique are trying to turn Hackney into a land fit for lawyers and accountants! 😉



  10. pat on Friday 4 November 2011 at 00:04

    GSOB,your right.The council will probably have one final push before the Olympics and many of us will find ourselves in refugee camps in Islington and Stepney!



  11. Kris on Sunday 6 November 2011 at 10:36

    Jed thinks because the Gazette takes BNP ads – which I’ve never seen- that somehow justifies the Council running their own paper.

    The fact is, Jed, Hackney Today, is a colossal waste of time and paper. Mine & my neighbour’s copies sit in the communal hallway until someone can be bothered to throw them away.

    The council should at least support local business rather than lamely attempting to compete.



  12. Kris on Sunday 6 November 2011 at 10:40

    But I suppose Jules can’t resist running his own paper – especially since his outburst during the elections about the Hackney Citizen being a “[lying] little rag”.



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