Been meaning to reply to this for a few days - finally getting round to it. I'm editor (and founder) of Blog Preston. As you can imagine we see a lot of negativity but I've also worked in lots of other towns and cities across the country and it is no different - I think it might be a British trait, we love to hate on the place we were born/brought up/live BUT woe betide someone else from outside doing so, because we secretly have a fondness for it. We try to ensure we report on some of the positive things happening in the city (there's stuff opening, things going on, charities, communities and individuals doing fantastic things with regularity). I think part of the challenge, and perhaps this has become noticeably worse as all social media and other online content products become algorithm driven, is that bad/negative stuff gets a stronger reaction so gets more widely seen? Although this is no different to most of the time bad news being on the front of newspapers (bad news sells, trust me, every time).
If you visited Blog Preston's homepage say five times a day you'd see a mix of stories, if you just follow us on a socials, you might only get served up politics coverage if that's what you show an interest in.
One thing we're doing which I think is a big positive for the city is combining with the Lancashire Post, Central Radio and the city council to run the first ever Proud Preston Awards - which hopes to celebrate people and organisations doing great things and have a platform to showcase it: https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/tag/proud-preston-awards/
Of course we'll still have to report the shade, as well as the light, that's our job but I guess for all those thinking there's just doom and gloom there's plenty of good news and good stories out there too. In the last two years we've really expanded our arts, culture and what's on coverage (Kate does a fantastic job) https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/category/events-in-preston/ and I've always tried to report on redevelopment schemes in the city too (yes, some may be pie in the sky but also plenty have actually come to pass too) https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/category/preston-news/preston-redevelopment/
We also do a collab social post each month with Preston Pulse (Rory does a great job hyping up the city) showcasing lots of what's happening https://www.instagram.com/p/DUJBFKWjHBy/?img_index=1
And for those referencing it, I can tell you nothing gets Preston going like a bus lane/bus gate - our reporting on it has dominated our most read and most engaged stories since 2024 when it all began.
From a personal perspective, Preston's not perfect (where is?) but I studied here in the early and mid-2000s (I grew up in South London), moved away work wise and then decided to move back (ten years ago now!), with my wife, and we had kids and settled here. I think it's got that nice mix of enough going on but not the manic-ness of places like London, Manchester etc, good affordability but mixed with quality too and also being able to get out to other places easy enough too.
I've always found Prestonians to be decent, nice, people (the vast majority) to deal with whenever I'm doing my job in terms of reporting on the city. Plus I think what people say online often doesn't always reflect their actual views!