The Belfast Telegraph
Written by Zachary Boslett
Photographed by Brittany Harrington
For descriptions, open the slideshow in fullscreen and click "show info," or view the set.
The Belfast Telegraph is known as a conservative, unionist paper in Northern Ireland that has historically been the leading paper in the country and the main source of news for the people. Point Park University students were able to visit this newspaper on May 14.
Due to the conservative tendencies of the Telegraph, it is surprisingly the most progressive paper on the island of Ireland when it comes to technology, internet, and 21st century journalism. Currently, the website of the Belfast Telegraph gets more hits than newspaper sales.
However despite the website’s success, the work done by Gerry Patterson and his online journalists is still seen as unimportant by the editors of the Telegraph.
“The people in charge do not want to see print pounds turn into online pennies,” said Director of Development Gerry Patterson. “I don’t care about the revenue side of the paper, I like the development side.”
Patterson started working at the Belfast Telegraph 17 years ago when digital page layout was just beginning. He used to have to sort through hundreds of stories by hand to upload to the website but he says that technology has made his job easier in that regard.
“Now, there are content management systems and other systems that make my job easier,” said Patterson. “Before, the journalists that wrote the stories would have to enter them into our system and for whatever reason they never did so I would have to.”
Patterson’s website is one of the few newspaper websites in Ireland, the Republic or Northern Ireland, that has become a success and a useful asset to the newspaper.
“There are about 1.5 million people in Northern Ireland and we get nearly 17 million page views per year on the website,” said Patterson. “We get hits on the website from all over the world. There are Irish people residing all over the Earth and these expatriates use the website to keep in touch with their homeland.”
The Belfast Telegraph has had an online presence for over 14 years – during most of which they just published content straight from the newspaper. However, establishing that online presence was a slow and arduous task due to the people of Northern Ireland’s unwillingness to embrace the internet.
“The website was very slow to take off. People here are very conservative,” said Patterson. “Everyone has a laptop and a cell phone but they are hiding away their laptops and phones. They are embarrassed to use them in public. They don’t use it how they should.”
Websites in the Republic of Ireland are money pits because of the extremely low internet access across the country. In Northern Ireland, broadband access is 100% according to Patterson. Therefore despite the embarrassment over the technology, the people of Northern Ireland have the resources to make a news website a viable business.
“Because of the success of the website, my team is currently producing mobile applications for devices like iphones and blackberries,” said Patterson. “We are making separate apps for news, jobs, sport, etc. That is the next big thing here.”
Patterson’s website currently uses a small amount of multimedia content but it is an ever increasing aspect of the newspaper’s repertoire.
“About 40% of the website hits we get are for the photo galleries,” said Patterson. “While there is not a big appetite for video yet, we do have a multimedia journalist and they use a bit of video for their stories. We love to get user generated content for the website like photographs, video, etc.”
The Belfast Telegraph’s website currently sustains itself through advertising but Patterson and his team hopes to improve upon that by making the website more “google friendly” to drive more people to the site.
“We rewrite headline for an international audience in an effort to make headlines ‘google friendly,’” said Patterson. “Expatriates are very interested in Northern Ireland even though the ‘Troubles’ are over.”
While the strife in Northern Ireland was good for the news and The Belfast Telegraph sold more papers, Patterson says everyone is glad the fighting has pretty much ceased. However, during the peak of the conflict there were several attacks against the newspaper and its journalists.
“The Belfast Telegraph’s building was bombed right before I started here,” said Patterson. “A truck loaded with a bomb drove into the lobby and exploded causing several casualties. The printing press is housed in a bunker-like structure with several feet of concrete on all sides. The presses had been targeted by militants several times.”
Patterson himself was deeply affected by the troubles. Gerry is a catholic but during the conflict he was dating a protestant girl for several years. But they were unable to be together publicly because they belonged to different sides. Patterson had to hide in the car while his girlfriend drove to keep their relationship a secret.
“More news and papers sold during troubles but everyone is happy that it is over,” said Patterson. “The news is more boring now but it is better that way. There are glass fronts on building downtown now. During the conflict, a glass front building was never seen because the glass would have to be replaced constantly due to bombs going off in the streets.”
The Northern Ireland economy has not been hit nearly as hard as the economy in the Republic of Ireland but the size of The Belfast Telegraph’s staff has been reduced severely since Patterson started working there 17 years ago.
“In 1993, there was a staff of 150 people here. Now there is about 50 people working for the paper,” said Patterson. “Photographers have also been cut. Even four years ago there was 13 photographers at the paper. Now, there are four.”
Despite the loss of manpower at the paper, Gerry Patterson is excited to see what the future of journalism has in store for his paper.
“Students that come to work for the paper during the summer are more interested in online work rather than print,” said Patterson. “They get paid internships here. My advice to the aspiring journalists is to embrace the technology. Do not be afraid.”