Hinckley Times - Behind the headlines

The week that was

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:48:38 +0000

VERY rarely am I compelled, on my day off, to call the office and ask what's going on.

But on Friday, when Britannia Tyres caught fire, it took me about ten minutes to call my colleague Ian Gallagher to check on the situation.

Carnival time

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:13:29 +0000

I DON'T really have any memories of Hinckley Carnival from my childhood.

My parents have never been into it, and I never felt the urge to watch it.

The news stops for nobody

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:06:47 +0000

AFTER NEARLY two years of bashing keyboards and shouting at councillors I have discovered something rather important about this journalism business. It doesn't stop when people go on holiday.

This last fortnight The Hinckley Times Chief Reporter Ian Gallagher has been on holiday. It is richly deserved - "Gal" works extremely hard. The problem is other reporters have to pick up the slack.

Council stories can be interesting - promise!

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:02:44 +0000

I USED to follow a golden rule with every story I wrote - don't put councillors or council in the intro, because people won't read it if you do.

Why? Because I thought it was boring and people didn't really care.

Don't laugh, but journalists can be trustworthy

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:57:43 +0000

CONTACTS are absolutely everything in this game. If we don't know about something, then we can't report on it.

Fortunately for me, and a number of my colleagues, I have a number of absolutely wonderful contacts who have a cracking eye for a story.