One of the biggest changes I have witnessed during my time as a journalist has been the astonishing rise in importance of digital and social media.
It is absolutely crucial for every media organisation to have a thriving presence on the internet.
Sophisticated analytics mean that it is possible to track just how many people have looked at any particular news story and boosting your number of page impressions and unique users is an essential part of any editor’s job.
It is usually fairly easy to predict which news stories will do well on the web. But every now and then a story will come along that has surprising results. Such was the case with the story of the destroyed office chair in January 2007. Late that day Westmorland Gazette reporter Andrew Daniels uploaded a short item gleaned from routine police and fire calls. It read:
AN OFFICE chair was destroyed after it was set on fire on the grassy area, off Maude Street, Kendal, this afternoon. Fire crews from Kendal attended along with police. A spokesman for the fire and rescue service said: "A delinquent set fire to an office chair in the middle of a grassy area and it was extinguished using one hose jet."
The following Monday it was noticed that two rather dismissive comments had been posted, questioning the story’s news value. A discussion took place – should we remove them or the story itself? No, it was genuine feedback and the story let local people know why fire crews were in a Kendal park.
By Thursday a further 22 comments had been posted. These were more tongue-in-cheek and were coming from all over the world, including Dubai, Los Angeles and Ireland.
They included:
This story has upset me so much I don't think I’m going to be able to sleep tonight - I work with office chairs very closely on a daily basis and they've always treated me well
and to hear stories like this makes me sick to my stomach.
and:
I heard the chair was causing problems with posture, I've had a bent back now for 5 years and am glad to hear of these acts of revenge.
and:
Surely the bigger story here was the contribution made to global warming? Today a chair burns tomorrow the world!
The remains of the burnt office chair on grassland off Maude Street, Kendal
Within another ten days we had around 70 comments – these included various inventive poems, jokes and puns. Someone uploaded the words to Gilbert O’Sullivan’s hit Clair, swapping the word ‘Clair’ to ‘Chair’. Reporter Andrew Daniels did a follow-up story, including a picture of the scorched grassland in the park, which led to a fresh set of comments.
Eventually some of the comments started including swear words and a group started posting offensive material. After a day when monitoring comments and complaints became almost a full-time job a decision was taken to suspend comments. It was felt the matter had run its course.
Ironically at this stage other media got hold of the story and the reaction to it. Radio Cumbria ran a five-minute item and staff started to hear the story elsewhere - on Radio 4’s Today programme, on Radio 5 Live and on Sky News. There were articles in the trade press and The Times of February 24 carried a full page and an editorial comment on the story and the reaction it has sparked. An office equipment manufacturer used the tale to help promote its products.
"Apparently, it worked its way up from the bottom”
Colin Shelbourn’s cartoon which appeared on the front page of The Westmorland Gazette during coverage of the chair saga
Throughout February and March the chair and subsequent follow-up stories were consistently in the top ten most-viewed stories of the day and week. Indeed for months afterwards we would suddenly notice the chair story as the most-read story of the day, presumably as a new group of people discovered it and shared it among each other.
Everyone is aware now of items that go ‘viral’ but back in 2007 it felt like a fairly new phenomenon.
If you would like to see the original story and view the comments, go to https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/1151898.chair-destroyed/