18 Nov, 2022 @ 15:00
1 min read

Back to the future: How the Olive Press is combining old-fashioned news values with modern day social media

Tic Tok On Mobile

THE Olive Press team has decades of news experience under their belts.

Some even started in the days of ‘hot metal’, bashing out stories via ancient typewriters on flimsy paper with a carbon sheet to get a copy for the sub editors (note to youngsters: that’s what a ‘carbon copy’ means!).

Bearded Journalist In Glasses Typing On Typewriter
How it was not so long ago. Photo: Adobe Stock

It is fair to say the world of news has moved on since then!

First came computers, which helped speed up the production process, then came the internet revolution.

Now we can offer our readers many more stories on our website than we ever could in our printed papers. Yes, 20-plus a day, with over 30,000 of you already registered to receive them.

And we are not stopping there. We are constantly embracing change, always looking to the latest forms of media to get our stories out to new readers.

Be it Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, we have tens of thousands of followers on social media – and – like it or not – these platforms are a big part of our future.

Tik Toks
A snapshot of the Olive Press TikTok site

One young man, teenager Alfie Clarke, is helping us make a name for ourselves in the ‘kids’ world’ of TikTok videos.

For us old hacks it seems remarkable that in just a couple of months his TikTok posts have got well over a quarter of a million views.

But his videos are not just informative, they take on board the good old fashioned news values we learned back in the day. 

Hence, his maps of recent snowfalls around Spain at the weekend, have had 70,000 views, while his post on nationwide energy use, has had 16,000 so far.

It is a stunning achievement and doesn’t just help our global reach, but also gets youngsters engaged with a range of interesting topics and news each week.

It also shows the Olive Press is continually looking to the future with new technology – and with the young blood we have on board, that future looks good.

Want to engage with our million-plus visitors a month? Please get in touch at sales@theolivepress.es

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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