Busy times: School work, News Awards and community reporting

It's been a busy past couple of weeks, delivering our latest print edition (with contributions from over 20 community reporters) and we've shone a light on some quite big stories, such as the bus cuts, which have led to a spike in the number of people coming to our website. 

Did you know that for each of the past three years we've had more than a million annual page impressions (clicks)? It's always nice to be well read, but WLD isn't about page impressions and a lot goes on which you don't necessarily read about.

We're about community, and I've been busy in the past month talking to aspring young journalists in two schools - Farnley Academy and Whingate Primary in Armley.

At Whingate they've teamed up with The Guardian's News Wise (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) campaign, which is promoting media literacy among youngsters. Budding news hounds in two classes are putting together their own community newspapers, and it was nice to talk to them about journalism and WLD and answer so many questions!

I can't wait to see their final articles - and I've promised that we'll use some of the best ones in our next print edition on May.

In other news, we hope you're enjoying our new what's on section on our website, which is run by our volunteer community reporters. And one of our community reporters, Michelle, is looking to start a monthly WLD podcast, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Next Tuesday I'm heading down to London for the annual News Awards, where WLD has been shortlisted in the Community Newspaper of the Year category. It is a great honour to be recognised nationally for the work we do. Wish us luck and keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks again for your support - we couldn't do this without you.