LAST year proved to be a record-breaking year for the Leigh Journal’s website, which saw traffic increase by almost 200 per cent.

The team ensures that all breaking news now appears on the web first, along with the title’s popular Facebook page and Twitter feed.

“Social media is huge now and we are enjoying interacting with our readers who are great at letting us know what’s going on via tweets, Facebook or texts,” said editor Hayley Smith.

“We are also getting more and more comments left on stories and letters, as people like the fact they can respond publicly with their opinions.

“There is a lot of news that features on our website that doesn’t appear in the paper – such as the weather and traffic news, which is time sensitive. We also have our own national news section, ‘strange’ news from some of our sister titles and our sports news is also incredibly popular.”

Last year the Journal welcomed Sophie Arnold to the reporting team, a multi-media journalist who joins long serving news editor Brian Gomm, who has worked for the company for more than 40 years.

The latest digital results show our mobile audience is growing rapidly, with many more people now accessing the Leigh Journal via their smart phones or tablets. So keep in touch.

Journalists are now able to record video interviews on iPads IN 2013 the Leigh Journal finally received an ‘Oscar’ for its outstanding performance.

The newspaper was honoured at a top awards ceremony in Liverpool when it was named the north west’s best free distribution publication in the 2013 02 Media Awards.

The Journal was praised by award judges for its design, story count and community campaigning.