Borough Life Editorial Policy

Borough Life is Wigan Council's civic magazine for residents of Wigan borough.

The purpose of this policy is twofold: to set out the broad principles governing the content of Borough Life magazine, and also to indicate practical aspects of its production that will be useful to potential contributors.
Borough Life is Wigan Council's civic magazine for residents of Wigan borough. It is currently published four times a year and, like any publicity issued by the council, must meet the legal tests laid down both by the national code of practice on local authority publicity, and the council's own publicity protocol. Both of these can be found on our website.
In addition, the following editorial policies and values apply.
The role of Borough Life is to communicate council priorities, plans and policies, events and initiatives to the people of the borough. Where space allows, Borough Life also carries information of potential interest to residents, such as:
Interviews with local celebrities
What's on
Events and initiatives from partners and outside organisations, such as health and social agencies or voluntary and community groups.
Borough Life aims to complement the council's vision for the borough by showing how it is:
helping people reach their full potential;
building strong communities; and
making sure we all live in a borough we can be proud of.
Borough Life aims to reflect the huge range of the council's work and how council tax payers' money is spent to support this; it contributes to a positive relationship between the council and its citizens, and encourages them to value the democratic process.
Borough Life's values mirror those of the council as a whole.
Setting high standards e.g. ethics.
Being open and honest e.g. about what the council can and cannot do.
Focusing on performance e.g. by developing the magazine in consultation with readers. Leading by example e.g. encouraging social involvement and responsibility.
It seeks to do this in an interesting, lively and readable format - Borough Life has the same production values as any other professionally produced magazine. The human interest angle is what will make people read an article.
Borough Life is apolitical and the news within it may be defined as 'political' only to the extent that the work of the council is a reflection of decisions made by the controlling political group or groups. While it may deal with controversial issues, it will not do so in a way that could be construed as giving support to a political party.
Borough Life is not, therefore, a tool for party political campaigning or profile-raising by parties or individual councillors. Where councillors are quoted or photographed, these will normally be portfolio holders who are members of the cabinet. Occasionally it may be necessary to quote other councillors if they hold some form of office, for example the chair of a particular select committee, but this will be the exception rather than the rule.
Borough Life will be written and edited by the Public Relations team, with design, print and distribution arranged through an external partner.
Borough Life articles are loosely divided into three types.
i. News items, no more than half a page in length at most.
ii. Feature articles, at least one and often up to two pages long.
iii. Regular items, like consumer advice, what's on, letters and a column by the council leader. We also try to include several News in Brief (nibs) columns. These are very short news items often of no more than one or two sentences.
Each council department has a representative who will canvass ideas and suggestions and forward them to the editorial team. Cabinet members and chief officers will also be invited to suggest items for inclusion. However, editorial decisions on the use of stories and images are final and there is no automatic right of approval for contributors. So long as it meets the criteria outlined in paras 1-3 above, the yardstick by which we assess any item is: 'will this be interesting to readers?'
Contributors may correct errors of fact, but must accept the house style of writing and layout. Likewise, no guarantee can be given that any article will appear in a specific issue, or indeed at all.
If an outside agency writes and designs a supplement to Borough Life, the editor reserves the right to final approval of editorial content and layout.
Pictures are a key part of the impact of Borough Life. The emphasis is on strong, colourful and lively images. Images of men in suits, people shaking hands, presenting cheques etc are generally filed under the heading 'worthy but boring'!
Wherever possible we prefer to commission a photographer who knows what we are looking for rather than rely on supplied photos. Whatever is chosen, photos must be of high quality.
Technically, most photos are now supplied as digital files, but these must be of a high resolution i.e. shot at a minimum 300dpi on the camera's highest setting. Transparencies are equally good, prints less so unless they are sharp and contain good colour contrast.
Borough Life will be also be available in large print and audio formats, and extracts may be made available in various languages on request.
The magazine aims to reflect the council’s policies on equality and diversity which are designed to tackle discrimination. It will include stories (so long as they comply with other editorial policies) that show the council’s seven ‘social identity’ models - age, class, disability, gender, religion/ belief, race and sexual orientation – in a positive light. It aims for balanced coverage in proportion to the borough’s population as a whole
Borough Life accepts a limited amount of advertising from internal and external organisations when space is available, or when related to competitions. Any adverts must be well designed, normally in full colour and at least a quarter of a page in size. Acceptance of any advert does not imply endorsement of any particular products or offers and Wigan Council accepts no liability for any loss or damage arising out of a response by any party to an advertisement appearing in the publication.
Competitions featured in Borough Life are subject to separate rules, available on request.