Ruth Addicott asks journalists what it’s like to live and work in Liverpool
Liverpool A
s sports editor at the Liverpool Echo, David Prentice has an enviable patch, including two of the most successful clubs in English football, Everton and Liverpool. He has been to the Olympic Games, World Cup Finals,
Grand Nationals and covered all kinds of stories from relegation battles to Liverpool’s European Cup triumph in 2005.
“I’m not sure I would have had as many sporting career opportunities writing in any other provincial city,” he says. “It’s my dream job.” For a sports journalist, Liverpool has plenty to offer. “The national newspapers always want quality writers with
innate knowledge of the city and its teams,” says Prentice. “Former Echo sports writers like Brian Reade, Tony Barrett, Chris Bascombe, Paul Joyce, Dominic King and Andy Hunter have all gone on to enjoy successful careers nationally.” Born “a goal-kick from Goodison Park”, Prentice has lived in Merseyside all his life and worked at the Daily Post and Echo since 1987. He began his career on weeklies, including the Formby Times, Southport Visiter, Crosby Herald and Bootle Times. While the weekly print titles have almost all closed and the
Daily Post ceased publishing in 2013, he says the Echo is now employing more sports journalists than ever because of its online reach. He talks about the changes at The Echo in his book A Grand
Old Team to Report, which recounts his journey following Everton as a fan, then as a reporter. “In 1990, the Liverpool Echo sold 200,000 copies of a printed newspaper every day and editions rolled off the
printing presses in Old Hall Street at 11.30am, 12pm, 12.30pm, 2pm and finally at 3.30pm,” he says. “You could get a good story overnight and still preserve its exclusivity until the paper hit the streets the following day.” “In 2020, pre-coronavirus lockdown when football matches
were still being played every three or four days, barely 30,000 copies of the Liverpool Echo were being printed. But, crucially, the Echo attracted more than two million readers to its website every single day, with 900,000 readers alone clicking sports stories. If there was a big match that night, you could effectively double those figures. These were stories that could be uploaded within seconds of having been created.” Aside from the pandemic and potential further cuts, the
challenges for journalists are the increasing barriers and levels of control put up by football clubs, and online abuse as a result of their higher profile on social media. The Echo’s building in St Paul’s Square, off Old Hall Street, is also home to Liverpool FC’s official match day programme and monthly magazine (published by Reach Sport) and other Liverpool FC books and publications. This Is Anfield is an Liverpool FC website. Paul Salt, breakfast show presenter at BBC Radio Merseyside, also started out as a sports journalist. He began his career on Liverpool’s commercial station Radio City and moved from sport into news and presenting, having covered stories such as the Louise Woodward trial, the Hillsborough verdicts and Liverpool’s European successes. Salt, originally from Stafford, moved to Liverpool 25 years ago. “My main motivation for moving here was football,” he
says. “My dad is a Liverpool fan, I’m a Liverpool fan, so I tried to pick a university near Anfield.” One thing he likes about the city is its village feel. “I live in
Crosby, about six miles from the city centre. I can be in town in 20 minutes but, when I come home, I don’t feel close to work,” he says. “We’ve got a beach, which everyone is amazed by, and very quickly you can be out of Liverpool and into the countryside. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.” Stephanie Power, a freelance journalist, producer and
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