Comprehensive press coverage of the Olympic Games – described as 'every minute of every event' – is reportedly to be provided to newspapers up and down the country by a 90-strong team of journalists from the press agency, Press Association.
Says the Press Gazette: “There has been growing controversy in recent weeks after it emerged that of the 400 UK press accreditations available for the Games, just a handful have been allocated to regional newspapers. As host news agency, PA has been allocated 90 press passes, which are not included in the 400 figure.”
Press Gazette adds that the PA team will comprise approximately 61 reporters, 20 photographers, three technicians and six video journalists.
PA's Olympics editor, Scott Dougal, is quoted reassuring local newspapers it won't be just the stars who will be interviewed, saying: “It may be that we take the decision, when there’s one local paper interested in one individual athlete, that we just work with that newspaper to feed them copy. That’s a relationship that we have with our partners, we talk with them daily about what they require and we do our best, whether that’s sport or anything else that PA covers.”
When asked about local newspapers that don't subscribe to PA, Dougal is further quoted, as saying: “That’s absolutely something we’re looking into. We’re not sure yet about the terms or how it would work exactly because we don’t know the technology at the other end.”
