Preston2000

It was created to serve researchers, reporters and anyone with a general interest in the 2000 Preston by-election — a parliamentary contest that drew national attention to a Lancashire constituency and, for a cohort of trainee journalists, became a live newsroom in miniature.

The site is best understood as both a piece of journalism and a piece of journalism education. It demonstrates how a modern reporting team can combine core newsgathering skills with web-native production: sourcing, verification, interviewing, writing to deadline, and then publishing that work in a format built for the World Wide Web rather than for print. For anyone studying or teaching online journalism, it is a useful case study in how a small, supervised team organises itself around a single, time-bound news event.

Key Takeaways

• Preston2000 was produced by MA and postgraduate diploma students on UCLan’s online journalism course, based in Preston.
• Its editorial focus was the 2000 Preston by-election, making it a resource for reporters and researchers covering that contest.
• The project reflects the course’s emphasis on practical, industry-supported training in editorial content, design and production for the web.
• It illustrates the blend of traditional journalism skills — sourcing, verification, interviewing — with web publication, design and legal/ethical judgement.
• The team model (multiple named contributors working to a shared brief) mirrors how real newsrooms organise coverage of a single major event.

What Preston2000 Is — and Why It Exists

At its core, Preston2000 is a themed news and reference site. Rather than covering general news, it narrows its scope to one event: the 2000 Preston by-election. That editorial decision is significant. By-election coverage is a classic training ground for political reporters because it compresses the full range of political journalism into a short, intense campaign — candidate profiles, doorstep interviews, constituency colour, polling-day reporting, and the count itself.

For a student team, focusing on a single by-election offers several advantages:

• A clear, finite brief. Everyone knows the subject, the deadline and the audience.
• Genuine news value. A by-election is a real event with real stakes, not a classroom simulation.
• Reproducible structure. The team can divide labour into beats — candidates, parties, local issues, results — the way a professional political desk would.
• A durable resource. Once the campaign ends, the site remains a reference for anyone researching the contest.

This is why the site describes itself as a resource “for researchers and reporters” as well as the generally curious. It is designed to be cited, revisited and used as background — the kind of secondary source that helps a later journalist get up to speed quickly.

The Team Behind the Site

Preston2000 was produced by a named group of postgraduate students, each contributing to the shared editorial product. The team members were:

• Oonagh Jaquest
• David Schaffer
• David Singleton
• David Cairns
• Moira Steggles
• Gavin McLaughlin
• Jenny Green
• Sean McColgan
• Michelle Nicholson

Publishing a full team list is itself a journalistic convention worth noting. Professional outlets use bylines, contributor pages and mastheads to establish accountability — readers can see who is responsible for the work.

For students, seeing their names attached to published journalism is part of the transition from coursework to professional practice. It also signals transparency: the audience knows this is student-produced work with an academic purpose, not an anonymous or unattributed source.

The Course: MA/PgDip Online Journalism at UCLan

The site was produced as part of the MA and postgraduate diploma in online journalism at the University of Central Lancashire. The course is aimed at people seeking a career in editorial content, design and production on the World Wide Web — a description that, when the course was running, placed it at the leading edge of a field that was still defining itself.

The curriculum, as described, covers three broad strands:

• Core journalism skills. The fundamentals that apply regardless of platform: news judgement, sourcing, interviewing, accuracy, structure and writing to deadline.
• Website design and production. The technical and editorial craft of building and publishing for the web — layout, navigation, multimedia and the practicalities of getting copy online.
• Legal, ethical and commercial considerations. The constraints and responsibilities of publication: defamation, contempt, privacy, copyright, and the commercial realities that shape editorial decisions.

The course “enjoys strong industry support,” which matters in vocational journalism education. Industry backing typically means that working professionals help shape the curriculum, that students get exposure to real newsroom expectations, and that the qualification carries weight with employers. The stated emphasis is on “developing key skills and knowledge through practical work, underpinned by reflection and academic enquiry” — in other words, learning by doing, then stepping back to understand why it worked.

That combination — practice plus reflection — is the hallmark of a good professional postgraduate course. It is not enough to publish a story; the value comes from understanding the editorial, legal and technical decisions that produced it.

How a Project Like This Is Built: A Practical Model

For students and educators thinking about running a comparable publication, the Preston2000 model suggests a repeatable workflow. The stages below are the kind of sequence a supervised student newsroom typically follows.

1. Choose a bounded, newsworthy subject. A single event with a clear timeline — a by-election, a council budget, a court case, a festival — gives the team focus and a natural deadline.
2. Assign roles against a real newsroom structure. An editor, a production/design lead, reporters on defined beats, and someone responsible for legal and ethical checks.
3. Set an editorial policy early. Agree on sourcing standards, how to handle anonymous sources, how to attribute quotes, and how to correct errors.
4. Plan the site architecture before writing. Decide what the reader needs: candidate profiles, issue explainers, a timeline, results, background. Structure drives the reporting.
5. Report to deadline. Interview, verify, write, edit. Build in a second pair of eyes for every piece.
6. Publish and maintain. Post the work, then keep the resource accurate and navigable after the event ends.
7. Reflect. Review what worked, what was missed, and what the legal and ethical pressure points were.

This is essentially the same cycle a professional desk runs, scaled to a teaching environment.

Core Skills the Project Demonstrates

Preston2000 is a useful illustration of the competencies that online journalism courses aim to instil. These map closely onto what employers look for when hiring trainee reporters and digital producers.

• Newsgathering and verification. Finding information, checking it against multiple sources, and being able to say how you know something is true.
• Interviewing. Getting usable quotes from candidates, officials and voters — and knowing the difference between an on-the-record and off-the-record conversation.
• Writing for the web. Shorter paragraphs, clear subheadings, front-loaded information, and scannable structure rather than print-style flow.
• Editing and sub-editing. Accuracy checks, house style, headline writing and cutting copy without losing meaning.
• Design and production. Turning copy into a usable page — layout, links, images and navigation.
• Legal and ethical judgement. Understanding defamation, contempt of court, privacy and copyright well enough to publish safely, especially in political coverage where claims about people are contested.
• Collaboration. Working to a shared brief, meeting deadlines and accepting editorial direction.

Why By-Election Coverage Is a Strong Training Ground

Political by-elections are demanding assignments, which is precisely why they suit a student project. A by-election compresses a general election’s pressures into a few weeks: multiple candidates, competing party narratives, local and national issues colliding, and a hard deadline on polling day.

Reporters covering a by-election must handle:

• Candidate scrutiny. Backgrounds, records and claims need checking, and political claims are frequently disputed.
• Balance and impartiality. Fair treatment of candidates is both an ethical expectation and, for broadcasters, a regulatory one. Written outlets are expected to be fair too.
• Local colour. The constituency’s economy, demographics and grievances shape the story as much as the national picture.
• Fast, accurate results reporting. The count is a live event where accuracy under time pressure is paramount.

For a student team, this is a realistic rehearsal for the pressures of a professional political desk — and it produces a genuinely useful archive for anyone who later needs to understand what happened in Preston in 2000.

Choosing a Journalism Course: What to Look For

Preston2000’s own description of its course offers a template for evaluating any online or multimedia journalism programme. Prospective students — and editors assessing a candidate’s training — can use the following criteria.

Criterion	What to look for	Why it matters
Practical output	Real published work, not just essays	Employers want evidence of reporting and production
Industry links	Working professionals involved in teaching or assessment	Signals currency and employability
Core skills	Sourcing, interviewing, writing, law and ethics	The fundamentals transfer across every platform
Technical training	Web design, production, multimedia	Digital roles expect production literacy
Reflection and theory	Academic enquiry alongside practice	Builds judgement, not just technique
Accreditation	Recognition by professional bodies	Can affect early-career credibility

On accreditation specifically: in the UK, journalism training is often measured against recognition from professional bodies such as the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) and, for broadcast, the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC). Prospective students should check whether a course carries such recognition, since it can influence how employers and editors read a qualification. The original Preston2000 material does not claim a specific accreditation, so anyone researching the course should confirm current details directly with the university.

Contact and Further Information

For those who want to know more about the MA/PgDip in Online Journalism, the original site directs readers to the online course prospectus. The journalism department could be contacted on 01772 894730, and the university’s website is at www.uclan.ac.uk.

When contacting a university about a course, it is worth asking specific questions: Is the course currently running? What accreditation does it hold? What proportion of assessment is practical? What do recent graduates go on to do? These are the questions that separate a genuinely useful prospectus conversation from a generic one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Preston2000?

Preston2000 is a website produced by postgraduate journalism students at the University of Central Lancashire, created as a resource for researchers and reporters covering the 2000 Preston by-election, and for anyone with a general interest in the subject.

Who produced the Preston2000 website?

It was produced by a team of students studying for an MA or postgraduate diploma in online journalism at UCLan. The named team members were Oonagh Jaquest, David Schaffer, David Singleton, David Cairns, Moira Steggles, Gavin McLaughlin, Jenny Green, Sean McColgan and Michelle Nicholson.

What does the MA/PgDip Online Journalism course cover?

According to the site, the course covers core journalism skills, website design and production, and the legal, ethical and commercial considerations of web publication, with a strong emphasis on practical work underpinned by reflection and academic enquiry.

Why focus a student project on a by-election?

A by-election is a bounded, genuinely newsworthy event with a clear deadline. It lets a student team practise the full range of political reporting — candidate scrutiny, balance, local colour and results coverage — in a realistic, time-pressured setting.

How can I find out more about the course?

The original site points readers to the online course prospectus, gives the journalism department’s phone number as 01772 894730, and lists the university website as www.uclan.ac.uk. Prospective students should confirm current course details and accreditation directly with the university.

Is Preston2000 still relevant today?

As a snapshot of early web-native journalism education, it remains a useful case study. Its subject matter — the 2000 Preston by-election — also makes it a reference point for anyone researching that contest, even though the site reflects the tools and conventions of its time.