Work Experience At The Press Gazette. Day One.

I was lucky enough to find work experience at 'Press Gazette', the magazine for journalists, and one which I wasn't sure that would be in existence until Wilmington Media came in to save the day.

It was strange though. I was watching a film about a journalist at the other end of the spectrum the night before, Hunter S. Thompson, in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'. It is excellent to know that it was possible to have a journalist who did copious amounts of drugs, be unaware of the events he was supposed to be actually reporting and still write a story that will be remembered from generation to generation.

It would nice to be able to follow his footsteps, but to be honest, I'm not sure if my future bosses will accept me thinking that he was an evil lizard out to get me, or have bats chasing me around the office.

So I went for the normality of a trade magazine famous for reporting about journalists. I even wore a kind of suit for the occasion. I'm never sure what 'smart casual' means so I went for a suit and trousers, though I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable with it.

But it's a job. Got to get on with it.

It was a very small office with about six or seven people. They were all extremely nice to me, and I quickly felt comfortable.

But.... I was using Windows!

I think it was for budgetary reasons, but the equipment didn't really match the computers that we have at the college. The Apple Macs are fast and great with graphics. The computer I was using had desktop icons and was painfully slow which I actually wasn't used to.

It's strange. Like people hate using Macs, I now have this problem with Windows because it feels dated and slow.

Onto the work. And for my first day I think it went very well.

First of all I was asked to cut clippings and find any useful stories that they had in the weekend papers. To be honest, I didn't think it was the most useful thing to do for them but it did mean I researched what kind of stories which the Gazette would go for.

They asked me what kind of stories that I had found and I mentioned Alexander Livinenko as he was mentioned an awful lot on the course and also a frequent subject for the Frontline. He is incidentally going to be played by Johnny Depp in a film which he is producing, which I was actually tempted to write a whole other entry about, but I haven't got time at the moment.

However, I was told that it wasn't really a 'journalist' story so to speak, as he was a Russian spy rather than a proper journalist.

I disagree actually, but didn't bring it up. He was poisoned allegedly because he spoke up and tried to reveal the truth that he felt about the Goverment, which is very much one of the things that a good journalist would do.

Maybe I'm wrong, but Hunter S. Thompson wasn't really a Journalist in a typical sense, but he did try to reveal what his own truth was. As the film mentioned, he was a 'Doctor of Journalism' (self proclaimed)

Personally I think the Gazette should go for stories and features about this type of thing, because it has a major importance to journalists just as much as pieces on blogging and staff redundancies at the Daily Express. But its not really for me to say.

Anyway. back to the job. I was asked to write a story about the 'Romsey Advertiser' and its change from a broadsheet to tabloid format.

It was only a little piece, about 250 words, and had a couple of changes in it. But it was very important to me because they will print it in the next issue, with my name on it as a byeline on it.

As I'm just starting out, this makes me feel pretty good, because if at this stage my writing is good enough to get into a very famous trade magazine, I should be happy.

Anyway here it is.

Press Gazette Article

Not a work of art by any means, but nevertheless important to me.

I then got involved with the 'Freedom of Information' campaign by the Gazette by emailing an electronic petition to editors from various regional weeklies which asked to be signed, in order to stop Blair from diluting it in the future.

An important task. A little boring and slightly secretarial, but nevertheless a useful thing to do and even relevant to my efficiency as a journalist in the future.

Anyway. It was a nice day. I hope it continues and gets even better.