Weeknotes Apr 25th-29th

This was a hard week, where my emotions have been not just at the surface but have been spilling over into most of the interactions I’ve had. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve shed a tear.

Wednesday was the funeral of an old friend, of a wonderful character who took me and so many other trainee reporters under his wing in our early days of newspaper journalism. I was 24 when I met Raymond Brown in the Hertfordshire Mercury newsroom, where he brought a unique perspective to local news from his many years working as a showbiz reporter. His style wasn’t to everyone’s taste but he really was a fabulous writer, and more importantly an excellent storyteller. And he’ll be truly missed.

Talking to and meeting up with so many former colleagues has been a blast from the past. I worked on the paper for just under 2 years before moving to local government comms. News reporting wasn’t really the right job for me and I would always put myself forward to do the features or the human interest stories over anything dramatic. Give me a diamond wedding anniversary to cover any day of the week. But I learnt so much in that job, from Raymond and from so many others that I admired, that I still use on a regular — sometimes daily — basis. And it’s got me thinking about how much those two years working as part of such a dedicated and — some might say — eccentic team shaped my career path.

Here’s some of the things I learnt, though there a few I’m slightly out of practice on!

… how to get straight to the point and tell everyone what they need to know in less than 250 words.

… how to meet a deadline, knowing that it isn’t an option to ask for an extension.

… how to finish something before starting something new.

… how to check my facts, and ask all the questions that might not seem relevant to make sure I’d got the whole story.

… that mistakes, or shoddy work, can really hurt people.

… how to apologise and take the actions needed to resolve mistakes.

… how (and when) to pick up the phone, or show up on someone’s doorstep when I need something rather than send an email or text.

… how to have extremely uncomfortable conversations about topics that I’d much rather have never heard of.

… how to approach a stranger and ask them to give me their precious time.

… and how to not take things too personally when people don’t want to talk to me.

Local news was already well past its heyday when I started and was on the fast track to extinction by the time I left but I’m so glad I got to do the job and to work as part of that team.