Launch of news website for Dorset

THE Western Morning News sister websites DevonLive and SomersetLive will soon have a new neighbouring site after publisher Reach announced plans for a new Live brand for Dorset.

The new DorsetLive brand will have its own team of reporters and content editors covering the whole county, from Lyme Regis to Bournemouth, including coverage of Bournemouth FC.

The expansion is part of a wider announcement from Reach Plc which will deliver a local news brand in every county in England and Wales by the end of the year.

In the South West, the company is also launching Live brands for Witshire and Herefordshire and bringing new reporters in to provide a dedicated service for Weston-super-Mare and North Devon.

Across the country, there will also be new Live brands in Norfolk, Suffolk, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Rutland and Darlington, as well as additional staff for the MyLondon editorial team.

The move will create more than 50 jobs – marking more than 170 new jobs created for Reach’s regional Live sites since the start of 2020.

Several jobs have already been advertised for DevonLive and SomersetLive. Roles for Dorset, Wiltshire and Herefordshire will go live over the next few days and will all be found on the Reach websites’ jobs pages.

Daily emailed newsletters are also coming for Dorset, Wiltshire and Herefordshire, North Devon and Weston-super-Mare.

South West audience and content director Jacqui Merrington said: “DevonLive and SomersetLive are now wellestablished brands in their markets because we respond to what our audience wants to read and we’ve built a relationship with our readers.

“We will do the same in Dorset and we’re really looking forward to getting to know our readers and developing a top class news, sport and entertainment service in the county.”

The decision follows a period of rapid growth for Reach’s online regional brands. Comscore data released in March shows that 72% of UK adults get local news from Reach, up from 67% a year ago. In 2020 alone Reach launched 19 new regional sites, including YorkshireLive which launched in March and within only six months had the largest news audience in the county.

Lloyd Embley, Reach Editor-inChief, said: “Over the past 18 months, we’ve significantly ramped up the number of new sites we’ve launched as part of our Live network, many in areas where we don’t have established print titles.”