The Head of Communications will make a presentation to the Committee on matters related to Wirral View.

Kevin MacCallum, Head of Communications provided a verbal update on the Council’s ‘Wirral View’ publication, detailing work currently underway, its content and issues surrounding its distribution.

The Head of Communications informed the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee that Wirral View had been launched in October 2016, and that the most recent edition was the Council’s 17th.  Members were apprised that Wirral View was not produced during the purdah periods associated with various elections in the past two years. The next edition of Wirral View was due in July.

Members were told that Wirral View was printed by one of the Council’s main media partners in the borough, and distributed by a local company. Most photography and all design, writing, editing and subediting was done in-house by the Council’s communications team.

The Head of Communications informed that Wirral View had been introduced alongside a new website and new approach to social media. The website ‘Wirralview.com’ had been successful and the Council’s new approach to social media – using more video, more engaging content had been extremely successful e.g. the video announcing the reopening of the Tower Road Bridge had been viewed more than 90,000 times on Facebook within the first 48 hours of its initial posting.

Mr MacCallum explained that the Council had also launched an e-edition of ‘Wirral View’, which had already accumulated more than 13,000 subscribers from the first two editions.

On the subject of advertising, the Committee noted that Wirral View had never been a vehicle to generate income - that was not its primary purpose. The Communications Office had deliberately priced advertising space much higher than local newspapers, avoiding conflict or possible charges of unfair competition. The Head of Communication informed that given this approach, the Council does still accept advertising business, but does very little sales and marketing to promote ad space.

Mr MacCallum explained that the Council has launched digital advertising, and was also working on new outdoor advertising products, to mitigate the financial impact on the council of not promoting advertising within Wirral View.

Members were informed that that the Council was now on its second supplier distribution – and how this had been the biggest challenge for the project. The Head of Communications that this aspect of the project had not been good enough, and was overshadowing the product itself. He added that the Communications Team were presently developing a number of proposals which would change how this particular element of the Wirral View project would be managed.

The Committee was apprised that more information on this and other aspects of the project will be available in autumn of 2018. Members agreed that Partners and Community Groups had welcomed Wirral View, and valued it as a way of getting clear, important information to residents. Community organisations valued the publication, as a vehicle for promoting stories, events and information relating to their work. Mr MacCallum informed that the majority of this sort of information would not be covered by the local media – there simply wasn’t the available space.

The Head of Communications summarised his report explaining that the delivery aspect of the Wirral View project had been incredibly difficult and frustrating. He concluded his report stating that further discussions would be held by the Cabinet, detailing new proposals to help improve the distribution performance.

Members questioned Mr MacCallum, and provided a variety of anecdotal evidence, on the subject of inconsistent or non-existent distribution issues in particular areas of the borough, but also commented on the positive feedback received regarding the content and quality of the publication from community organisations and residents. 

The Chair thanked the Head of Communications for his presentation.

Resolved – That the verbal report be noted.