Southern Star launches exciting new digital series

A NEW digital series from The Southern Star is set to go live on Tuesday, June 8th.

The Big Story, which will be exclusive to The Southern Star’s digital platforms, will bring readers closer to West Cork’s most important topics.

The first edition, entitled Macroom: Choked by traffic, is written and produced by Southern Star reporter Kieran O’Mahony and Southern Star digital manager Jack McCarron.

It will be released on Tuesday morning across southernstar.ie, Youtube and all the major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

‘We’re really excited about this new project,’ Southern Star editor Siobhan Cronin said.

‘We’re constantly looking to expand our coverage and this new multi-platform approach to covering major news stories in West Cork highlights our commitment to giving our readers unrivalled coverage of the stories that matter to them.’

Macroom: Choked by traffic tells the story of a town that has suffered with serious congestion issues for over 40 years, and the plans that are in place to alleviate some of those issues.

The €280m project is one of the most important and strategic road infrastructures ever undertaken in Ireland and comprises 18 road bridges, 24 accommodation structures and a number of culvert structures. It is engineering at its most spectacular.

‘We were recently given an exclusive tour of the new N22 bypass construction site in the company of several Council engineers who are overseeing this significant project,’ reporter and producer Kieran O’Mahony said.

‘It’s exciting to be able to bring Southern Star readers behind the curtain of one of the State’s biggest ever engineering projects.’

New episodes of The Big Story will be released monthly with several others already in production.

Episode two will focus on the country’s reopening and what that means for tourism in West Cork.

Other topics to be covered in the coming months include the West Cork wellness industry, housing issues across the region, and Rory Gallagher’s legacy.

‘The Southern Star is reaching a bigger audience than at any time in its history, which is really exciting,’ Siobhan Cronin said.

‘Our readers are digitally savvy and it shows.

‘The most read story in the history of our website was digital-specific and this tells us that this is the type of content readers want.’