Dealing with death

One of the hardest things a journalist has to do is interview grieving people who have just lost a loved one in tragic circumstances. It is perhaps even harder when that person is a child.For a reporter we are simply doing our job, but for the person at the other end their life has been ruined and turned upside down forever. Dealing with a situation such as this is perhaps difficult for both interviewer and interviewee. The reporter cannot help get caught up in the atmosphere of sadness, while the parent or relative can be so stricken with grief it is understandably hard for them to go over the horrific circumstances of the death of their loved one. Today I found myself in such a situation as I approached the house of Stephen and Penny Berrill who had just lost their brave 12-year-old son David to a rare degenerative muscle disease. Approaching the house is perhaps the most nervous part of the whole situation. Who will answer the door? Will they talk or will they tell you to sling your hook? Will you get the story or be forced to return to the office empty-handed? Generally such interviews offer a mixed bag with some relatives more than happy to tell the world about the pleasures their loved one brought their family and friends, while others see the media visit as an untimely and unneccesary intrusion. On this occasion the parents of remarkable David were more than happy to talk and generously invited me into their home. And even having done many death-knocks, as they are known in the business, I am still amazed by just how open, chatty and tear-free people can be with a total stranger in such difficult circumstances. I’m not so sure that if the boot was on the other foot I would have had the strength of character to cope with such circumstances, and Mr and Mrs Berrill deserve much respect for the bravery and dignity they demonstrated. David, like his parents, showed great courage throughout his horrific ordeal and fought his disease with tremendous bravery and honour. He gained the respect of family, friends and all who knew him and we hope our tribute to David will prove to be a fitting way to honour his memory.

The Chad news-gathering operation

It’s the first day back at work and the start of another week of the Ashfield Chad bringing you the news that matters.

The best way to do that of course is to meet the people who matter and today we had our regular meeting with Coun Jason Zadrozny, the young whipper-snapper in charge of Ashfield District Council.

Since moving over to the Ashfield office I have set up a number of monthly meetings with local authorities, organisations and individuals to improve out contact building process and to step up the volume of news and views received at the Ashfield Chad.

The meetings include informal chats with press officers at Nottinghamshire Teaching Primary Care Trust, representatives of Ashfield Fire Station, big wigs from Nottinghamshire County Council and Coun Zadrozny.

Personally I have found these meetings hugely beneficial and an ideal chance to both bring in more stories to the office and get to know the contacts on a more personal basis, a friendly contact is afterall much more likely to come to you or reveal stories to you than a more distant individual.

And our meetings with Coun Zadrozny have most certainly proved beneficial, providing us with a constant string of stories and information on the plans and ideas to help drag Ashfield into the modern world.

Although not everyone’s cup of tea, I have found Coun Zadrozny an excellent person to work with and a man who is easy going, approachable and hardworking as well as an individual with the necessary drive and ambition to bring improvements to our struggling district.

And for this reason whenever life is quiet in our office I will be bombarding Coun Zadrozny with calls to help bring more of the news that matters to our readers.

Good office practice

As you may have noticed from reading my blog, I like to have a laugh. Fortunately at Chad we are able to have some fun alongside our daily work.

But as you will have also noticed, Chad is a top quality and highly respected player in the weekly newspaper industry and underneath the banter and jokes there is also a job to be done.

Here at the Ashfield Chad it is vital we go out searching for and generating our own stories if we are to produce a good newspaper for the district’s avid readers.

News which simply drops onto our doorstep is a rare commodity, it is rare that someone visits us in reception and it is rare that something major happens such as a murder, suspicious death or devatastating fire.

In fact the only regular source of incoming news to our office is reports from various council meetings and council, health and police press releases.

So what do we do to fill the void and to fill the rest of the newspaper with? The best way to generate news of course is through old-fashioned contact building and networking.

During my 14 months in this role I have worked hard to build up many contacts from various organisations across the Ashfield District with great success and to generate my own stories.

The best source of contacts are councillors, and for me Coun Jason Zadrozny, Coun Rachel Madden, Coun John Baird and Coun Michelle Thomas have been crucial in helping me bring the citizens of Ashfield their weekly fix of news and views.

Councillors work in the community and have many of their own contacts, they know what’s going on in the area and are in fact a reporter’s eyes and ears for potential news and controversial stories.

They are of course also the people who make the news and whose decisions help to shape the future direction of the district.

But for reporters it is important we think on our feet. How can we find news when there doesn’t appear to be any? How can we provide better coverage of the stories we have through new media tools, pictures and images and how can we make the newspaper bigger and better?

A perfect example of this is my Community Corner column, which now provides us with regular weekly features helping us to bring colour to the news and reach out to the grass roots of the community.

And although it may appear that we have a cushy number sat in front of our computers, we are in fact always thinking on our feet and ringing contacts to unearth that front page or human interest report.

Another favourite tool for myself is the Freedom of Information Act, which allows us to request information to be made public from organisations such as a council, police or health body.

We have had a number of success stories in this field over many months and have been unable to unearth information which perhaps the authorites would rather have kept quiet.

So hopefully these contacts and story-gathering techniques will continue to be kind to us and allow us to bring you a high-quality product each and every week for many months to come.

Growing insanity

Well it looks like I spoke too soon yesterday when I declared I was comfortably succeeding in my quest to defeat the evil forces of boredom and loneliness caused by two days of solitary working.

In fact as I write this blog I can feel my levels of insanity slowing growing by the minute, bubbling up and ready to overflow until I am forced to let out one of those Reggie Perrin style screams of anguish (and as I’m on my lonesome who would know?).

Friday in the world of Ashfield Chad is rather slow at the best of times, today it is trickling to the pace of a tortoise or a snail, whichever is slower.

Aside from two Ofsted reports, a court case and a couple of less than entertaining press releases the pickings have, it’s fair to say, been rather slim.

On the afternoon horizon (if I can still move after my dinner time trip to stuff my face at Pizza Hut) is a couple of sports reports to compile in the absence of the regular sports duo and probably a lot of phone calls to Chad sub-editor Mark “TAFKAM” Hall.

Of course it is Friday and there is no reason to despair, a weekend of madness and thrills and spills is just hours away.

But if anyone cares to give me a phone call to save the ears of Mr Hall and push the afternoon clock relentlessly on to 5pm that would be much appreciated 

It’s a lonely lonely life

Personally I much prefer to be a busy bee at work than have a day with nothing to do other than cause havoc on Facebook.

And today I got my wish, boy did I get my wish. With my work chum Melissa Shaw taking two days off work to enjoy some much needed fun and frolics in Forest Town I was left to run the Ashfield office on my lonesome.

My two biggest fears for the day ahead was that firstly I would go completely mental as the clock ticked by and the silence and solitude grew more intense (I’ve been known to walk around the office talking to myself insanely on previous occasions).

And secondly, if I didn’t actually go crazy then the work would begin to seriously stack up and lead me to damage my fingers, or at least cause them to bleed, through excessive typing.

In truth the day wasn’t as daunting as I had first feared, I didn’t go mental and the workload - despite the best efforts of Ashfield District Council’s press officers who bombarded me throughout the day with press releases – failed to spiral out of control.

And today this week’s edition also appeared to be actually taking shape with a range of fairly meaty stories popping up to provide some colour and life to our weekly news offering.

Amongst the corkers awaiting your goodselves on Wednesday is the latest offering in Bill Starr’s emotional campaign to bring an end to the suffering of his wife Maureen-Anne and an update on the exciting developments at the new Ashfield Health Village.

So with all that, and more besides, to look forward too on Wednesday, investing your pennies in a copy of the Chad will certainly be money well spent.

How to fill a newspaper

We at the Ashfield Chad I feel can be rather pleased with our efforts this week.

On Monday during my regular “state of the newspaper” discussion with Chad sub-editor Peter Hemmett it appeared we were struggling to have enough content to fill even the most modest sized of editions.

The weekend had once again been unkind to us, failing to deliver anything in the way of big breaking news, dramatic incidents or in fact any sort of news come to think of it.

I believe Mr Hemmett’s words were “I need more stuff”, but the chances of us fulfilling his pleas with entertaining, factual, fun and appealing news seemed slim.

But as is the way with the newspaper industry and life at the Chad in general, just when you begin to scratch your head in despair a series of stories begin to appear on the horizon with growing momentum.

As you will have no doubt noticed, we were helped greatly by all the goings on at Mansfield Town and the fifth anniversary of the murder of Sutton man David Draycott, which took care of the front page.

Our old friend Bill Starr once again chipped in with further developments over how best to care for his dementia-suffering wife Maureen-Anne.

And Community Corner came up trumps once again to fill some space, while Elvis still continues to stir up the emotions years after his death, as the court report on page 3 so aptly demonstrates.

As yet the office diary is looking as empty and sparse as Field Mill on a wet and windy Tuesday night and little seems to be on the horizon for next week.

But I’m sure the newspaper gods will once again look kindly down upon Outram Street and allow us to bring the good folk of Ashfield their usual blend of entertaining news and views.

Community Corner

The start of another working week is often an irritating time for us office workers as we look back on two days of weekend fun with glee and struggle to get back into work mode once again.

Yet in Chad land, this particular Monday has actually flown by worryingly quickly for myself as I continue to plough through a variety of routine reports to help bolster our next edition of the Ashfield Chad.

And amongst the many reports I have compiled today is one of my proudest achievements in recent times – Community Corner.

Community Corner, for those of you who have not had the pleasure of reading it yet, profiles a local community group, voluntary organisation or individual who works tirelessly to promote life across the district and to make Ashfield a better place to work, rest and play in for us all.

Although Community Corner is a relatively simple section to fill (contacting groups to profile is often the hardest aspect of Community Corner) it is something that fills me with pride.

Many months ago I sat in an Annesley and Felley Parish Council meeting listening to the councillors bemoaning the lack of community involvement amongst villagers and thought something must be done to promote volunteering.

And from those humble beginnings came my idea, Community Corner – a section which I hoped would both help to fill the Chad with some positive news on a regular basis and to provide a focal point for worthy local causes to get the publicity they need.

And despite rather slow beginnings Community Corner, im pleased to say, is now finally beginning to thrive and reap some positive rewards for us.

Who knows, local groups may soon be battling it out to get some cherished Community Corner kudos.

If you know of an individual or organisation who deserves publicity for their work in Community Corner contact Stephen Thirkill on 464758 or email stephen.thirkill@chad.co.uk

It’s an interesting life

During my working life I’ve had many interesting and varied jobs.

I’ve served ice-cream to overweight Americans in North Carolina, worked as a receptionist at a campsite owned by the American version of Basil Fawlty and picked fruit under the punishing Australian sun – but none of these jobs compare to being a reporter.

Journalism has the unique ability to excite, to thrill, to offer variety and above all to suprise me and give me a real sense of job satisfaction.

And on Friday life in Chad land once again brought me the unique pleasure and excitement that only working on a big breaking news story can deliver.

Ironically I had spent most of Friday doing rather little on the news front (although I’d worked very hard delivering sports news for our new and improved sports internet section) and was looking forward to a 5pm finish and the start of my weekend.

And just as I was preparing to pack up my possessions and run out of the office with glee to my car, Mansfield Town FC was finally bought by James Derry – the Friday rush hour sprint (or sitting in a traffic jam should I say) up the M1 motorway would have to wait a little longer.

But this was fine by me. Working on major stories such as this, a story which will be at the  front of the newspaper and a report which people want to read is what the job is all about.

Likewise on Saturday morning when, although being out of office hours, I had to write a major breaking news story for our internet site about the police hunt to finally snare the killer of Sutton man David Draycott – a journo’s work really is never done.

So I can have no idea what the next working week has in store, but one thing I can guarentee is I wont be able to switch off and it wont be dull.

Room for improvement

One of the questions I always seem to be asking myself is are we at the Ashfield Chad doing enough to provide the best possible newspaper for you guys?

Too often I seem to flick through our beloved rag on Chad day, or Wednesday if you calendar traditionalists prefer, and be left with the opinion were are rather short on the news front - especially what we in the industry call hard news such as crime, fires and other major news.

So why is this? is it simply a case of us not doing enough to fill the paper with meaty issues on a regular basis or is it more a case of this is the animal we are dealing with?

Not so long ago the Ashfield Chad was seen as a bastion of hard news, a newspaper full to the brim with major news stories, human interest news and a newspaper where the reporeters worked tirelessly throughout the day to keep on top of things.

Sadly those days seem to have long gone, why that is I personally am not sure but it would be welcome to see them return once again.

For me the Ashfield Chad would certainly benefit from a new influx or death, doom and gloom alongside some stories of inspirational fights for survival against killer diseases to give the paper an extra lift.

Yet having said that, our sales figures have remained stable and if anything have slightly increased by a few hundred copies in the last two weeks.

So whatever we are doing, whether it is enough or not enough, you readers certainly seem to be happy with the content of the newspaper… even if some of us in Chad land would prefer more.

It’ll soon be Christmas

So the 2007 calender moves relentlessly on leaving us with one more Chad edition under our belts and one week nearer to some top-notch Christmas frivolities.

Thankfully, as I peer into Wilkinson’s across Outram Street, while flicking through the Ashfield Chad, Christmas-related products as yet seem to have failed to take over the store (let us all just enjoy Autumn for now before the festive fever grips us).

And as I pour over the Chad I cannot help feel both impressed and, dare I say it, a tad surprised.

Throughout the week the flow of news into the office seemed steady at best, and in reality rather slow – it was a week of frustration with little news and all the signs for a rather sparse and disappointing product.

So I hope you’ll excuse my shock when I opened the newspaper to find a bustling edition packed with top news (largely thanks to the hardwork of reporter Melissa Shaw), views, comment and sport rather than something more resembling a free community newspaper.

With news on heroic Sutton solider Dan Fisher, Mansfield Town’s on and off-field turmoil, controversial plans to close two Sutton post offices and much more besides it is fair to say the Ashfield Chad is packing a powerful punch this week.

And if the flow of stories into the office yesterday and today is anything to go by our next edition will certainly be up there with the best of them again.

It’s just a shame that Christmas is around the corner preparing to take away the news once again.