The assembled audience at the glitzy Future of Media Awards took a puzzled breath, and a few muttered what the hecks, as the shortlisted entries for App of the Year were read out.  

The Financial Times, The Telegraph and.... the Hampshire Chronicle. 

That’s right, this little weekly newspaper focusing on Winchester, had made it on to a list with two of the biggest and most respected news organisations in the country.  

Two of us attended the day, digital editor Megan Stanley and I, a packed conference held at the London Hilton Bankside on Thursday September 12, full of talk of digital audiences, subscriptions, Ai and content management systems, and we were joined by the Hampshire Chronicle’s head of news Andrew Napier for the swanky evening sit-down meal proper awards bash the Future of Media Awards.  

The conference and awards were put on by industry publication the Press Gazette and hundreds of people from across the media industry attended.  

The Hampshire Chronicle team The Hampshire Chronicle team (Image: Kimberley Barber)

Most were in the business of online publishing – and a few - like the big boys the FT or Telegraph - still had associated print products.  

As I was waiting for a coffee on one of the breaks, a fellow conference attendee from some fancy digital company with a catchy one-word name, clocked my name badge, and acted with surprise - “are local newspapers like the Hampshire Chronicle still going?” he quipped.  

Well yes, not only are we still going, but we are also growing and expanding. If you combine how many people still buy a printed copy of the paper each week, with those who buy a digital subscription, and add in those who click on our website or follow our social media account, the Hampshire Chronicle is arguably reaching its biggest ever audience.  

And if you are still puzzled about how we came to be shortlisted for App of the Year.... 

We launched an app earlier this year, something that admittedly has taken a long time to do, mainly because we are a small team, and we take so much pride in the printed newspaper and the presentation of our website that an app was a bit further down the priority list.  

However, after 252 years in business, the Hampshire Chronicle now has its own app. It is a really nifty perk for any subscriber as you can get our online content without any ads, plus you can access a digital replica of that week’s Hampshire Chronicle, even before it's in the shops, and an archive going back to 2020 (we are working on expanding this, but again it takes time and resource). It’s got a news section, a sport section, a leisure section and a ‘your say’ section where we post readers’ letters (please do keep sending them in, we love to receive them). There’s also a really cool – and slightly addictive – interactive puzzle section.  

The app is free to download, and if you just want to test it out, you get access to two articles for free, before it prompts you to buy a digital subscription. 

As well as the almost-award winning app, digital subscribers get a host of other benefits too such as regular subscriber competitions, discounts, and an ad-lite experience on our website. 

At full price, it’s only £3.99 per month, however there are cheaper rates for signing up to a year, and we regularly run offers to entice people in.  

I’m a regular app user, and I hope that other people will start using it too. 

On the train up to London, I looked around. Hardly anybody was reading an old-fashioned paper newspaper. But everybody was on their phones.  

Our love of the printed newspaper will still remain, but its existence means we can now bring it straight to your phone and into your pocket – a symbiotic relationship.  

To come back to the awards night, and for those on tenterhooks as to whether we won, sadly we didn't. We lost out to the Telegraph. More people came on to the stage to collect the award than I have in my entire team.  

That said, the Telegraph app is great example of an app. Smooth, packed with quality content and videos. Fittingly as we were waiting to find out if we’d won, it sent me a push notification, pinging in my pocket about some breaking news.  

We might not have taken the title, but just being shortlisted was enough to prove this little 252-year old weekly newspaper still has a life in the future of media...