But given that we’re all journalists these days and all have the ability to self-publish, then I’m guessing that brings with it the potential for press officers to get deluged.

There’s a distinct pecking order based on the number of viewers/readers – a rather ruthless calculus based on percieved influence.

In regional TV news, you get knocked back all the time because someone somewhere (usually in London) doesn’t regard you as especially important. And so on and so forth.

You get influence by breaking stories which are then picked up and widely circulated. So when the blog discloses stuff about the council which leads to wider coverage, then the blog starts getting taken more seriously.

The first is the idea that councillors are important people. They are, but so what? They are elected and there to be questioned.

The second is that the case with Hedy seems to be more of a grey area than the one quoted involving Simon Perry. I always thought members of the public could attend inquests, so refusing him access to an inquest as both a reporter and a member of the public seems to be breaking well established rules.

Finally, looking at the responses from those working for councils on here, is it a case of having to justify why stretched council press offices should find time to work with bloggers? I’m not saying this is what should have to happen, but surely the value a press office places on the material your produce directly corresponds to the amount of effort they put into dealing with you? Again, I’m not saying that’s right, but is this a case of finding an means to justify the preferred ends?

Birmingham is the only local authority bigger than us, and I suspect like them they have a busy press and media office. Ours operates 24 hours a day and we get upwards of 2500 queries a year (and those are only the ones we log). As Cleland highlights earlier, dealing with that kind of demand puts a strain on resources. I’d love to hire additional press officers, but then all you journalists would be writing about ‘more spin doctors for Leeds’ – and quite rightly I’m sure.

That’s why we have our virtual newsroom on which we publish every snippet of news, information, video, audio, photos and all invites to media/photo calls etc. The site isn’t locked down, content is available via the site, RSS, Twitter and we’ll even email stuff to whoever subscribes (and that includes several people who I think probably aren’t journalists).

For general things that we’re doing, there’s an open invitation – but there will be occasions when we will organise briefings for specific groups (or individual) reporters; especially when they have been following a particular issue closely over, say, many months or years.

But, I do recognise the role that bloggers/citizen journalists have to play these days and that many of them should be viewed as bona-fide news gatherers. My advice is to get to know your local council’s press office staff, find out who looks after what issues/portfolios and build a relationship with them. We publish the names/numbers of my press office team.

I’d like to think that we have a good relationship with Leeds media – and I’d like to hear about it if journalists thought that’s not the case.

I was working for a large commercial radio station in Hull not long ago and we frequently had issues with Humberside Police who gave priority to the BBC and local papers. At one point, we got a great exclusive from a whistleblower inside the force and Humberside Police didn’t give us a response…until the BBC started running the story! At which point they were on the phone clearly quite shaken.

Although they deny it if you ask them, in my experience, press officers from any authority clearly prioritise media outlets, although not, it would seem, using any facts or figures. They just assume ‘larger’ outlets have bigger audiences.

Briefing reporters off the record fell out of fashion years ago, as did rewarding reporters who toe the line by giving them exclusives.

You indicate that “this is all about building relationships between the reporter and the politician”. It’s not. It’s about building relationships between the politician and the people who elected him or her.

Birmingham Council is in a financial crisis and is in the process of cutting 7,000 full-time jobs and another 3,000 part-time jobs. The people whose lives will be torn apart by this have every right to expect that Council will engage in modern communication practices by being open, honest, transparent and empathetic.