Staff on music magazine Q are to produce three daily newspapers at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
The full-colour 16-page newspaper, entitled Q’s Glastonbury Times, will be distributed free on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings.
It will be written, designed and produced by a team of three from a Portakabin backstage and is expected to feature festival events, show time changes, reviews, interviews, backstage gossip and music recommendations.
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Q editor Danny Eccleston said the work would be split among the title’s staff but the core team at Glastonbury would consist of features editor Matt Allen, associate editor (production) Andy Fyfe and senior designer Isabel Cruz. All three will work through from Wednesday to Saturday.
Eccleston will also be on site and the paper will receive contributions from Q freelances.
"The Glastonbury newspaper daily has become something that is valued by people that go. It’s a great opportunity to talk to 150,000 people," he told Press Gazette.
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It is the first time Q has produced a newspaper at Glastonbury; the edition was previously produced by journalists on its sister title Select before its closure in 2000.
The move forms part of a five-year deal to make Q the official media partner for the Glastonbury festivals.
Each daily edition will have a print run of around 60,000. Although some material will be prepared in advance, Eccleston said most of the editorial would stem from events of that day.
"It is a big challenge to make something entertaining three days in a row," Eccleston added.
"It is the point at which magazine journalists realise how hard it is to be newspaper journalists."
Coverage of the festival will extend to Q’s website, Q4music.com, and its 24-hour digital TV channel QTV.
Q will also produce the official festival programme, free to all ticket holders.
By Ruth Addicott
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