New RTE series The Local Eye celebrates local newspaper industry

The first programme in a new three-part series celebrating the unique position of the local newspaper industry in Irish life is being broadcast on RTÉ One today.

The Local Eye is a six-part series following the fortunes of three regional newspapers – The Clare Champion, The Mayo News and The Munster Express – as they carve out a new space for themselves in a world of 24/7 news online.

The three newspapers featured remained family-owned throughout the boom and maintain extremely strong ties with their communities.

Facing new challenges in the digital age, they are adapting to survive and thriving on it.

Millions of Irish people turn to their local paper for the news that’s relevant to them and their community every week. Many have been in existence for well over a century, embedded in the hearts of their local areas and seeking out the stories that matter to their readers that can often be overlooked by the national press.

The Local Eye, an RTÉ Cork production, celebrates the amazing work of these institutions as they indefatigably tell their region’s stories and fight for their areas.

Series producer and director of The Local Eye, Gerry Reynolds, said: “This is a look at papers covering stories central to Irish life. Stories and characters that often don’t get a look in on the national media but which matter greatly to the community they serve and go to the heart of who we are.

“They are the stories of the extraordinary in the ordinary, with the kind of integrity and Irishness that would otherwise go unnoticed but are refreshing, honest and endlessly fascinating.

“From the story in local notes of angels emerging from a tree in the churchyard to the wonder of why people place In Memoriam remembrances in their papers each year, all human life is here.”

The Local Eye seeks to give viewers a real insight into the cut and thrust of creating their local newspaper, following the editors, reporters and staff of these publications as they break big stories and push deadlines to the edge.

Journalism, thankfully, is not always a serious business and local reporters have long derived pleasure from sourcing quirky and colourful tales.

From the sporting triumphs to the terrible tragedies; the publicity hungry local councillors to the news about neighbours, notices and events; the poems, parish news and births and deaths, this series gets inside the local newspapers and finds out what makes them tick.

The Local Eye is on RTÉ One on Thursdays at 7pm, starting today November 12.