What makes a good story?

"Hard news" - job losses, gains, collapse of airline, new buyer.

Needs to be unusual - needs to be wacky (exporting sand to deserts), female entrepreneurs. Too many suits.

Put yourself in the mind of the reader.

David - the clue with News is in the title (it needs to be NEW!). A news story needs to capture people's attenttion. On Sunday, we have a bit more time so we can do 'themes'.

Don't like releases that 'pat themselves on the back'. We try to find stories where we can say to readers 'this is going to affect you'. Need to offer people something they can think about and act on.

Everything gets speed read - so you need to grab attention.

Tayla - in terms of TV BBC SE covers a large area so stories need to travel, must have good pictures (!). A business feature has to have examples and case studies. Needs to 'lift out' of the local area and see how it impacts the whole of KEnt.

Kevin - interested in viewers in Ramsgate and Brighton. We like stories about Eurostar - good pictures. Unless the pictures work we can't do it as we can't have people switching off.

New news is very good. But sometimes an update is worth doing.

'Talkability' is very important - they need to be able to talk about it next day at work - not just big bad stories but stories that make people feel good about where they live.