What Makes a Good Reporter?

Daniel Owens, Deputy News Editor for Northampton’s Chronicle and Echo, thinks that all journalists need an eye for news.
Though he considers enthusiasm and a high standard of writing to be essential for journalism, the most important quality is an eye for a story.
“A good reporter is able to walk down the street and spot a story,” Mr Owens said, “for example if you see two shops next to each other both closing - that could be a story on the effects of the credit crunch on the local area. It’s something most people won’t notice.”
The 29 year-old started working for the newspaper as a junior reporter after completing a journalism degree at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston.
Whilst on his course Mr Owens had come to the paper for work experience on a number of occasions, as well as attending placements at Sport First and the Watford Observer.
“It seemed like a natural transition to make,” he said, “I don’t live in Northampton itself, I live just outside, but this is still my local paper.”
Out of the 18 daily newspapers owned by Johnston’s press the Chronicle and Echo is one of the highest in terms of internet growth.
Unfortunately this means that with the industry suffering the effects of the credit crunch, there are fewer journalists to write material and so the workload has increased dramatically.
Despite the intensive conditions Mr Owens says he still enjoys “being at the centre of breaking news in Northampton and being able to break news to the public.”

War Sirens and Carbolic Soap - Gillian Woodward's Earliest Memories

Born in the midst of the Second World War, 66 year-old Gillian Woodward’s earliest memories are of the Blitz.
“I remember sirens going off,” she said, “and I was frightened because I think I thought they were going to drop bombs. Someone was saying, ‘don’t worry it’s just the war sirens’.I was born in forty-two, in the middle of the war, so I must have only been three or four.”
One of five children, Mrs Woodward grew up in Leamington Spa, where her father worked in a factory.
After the war she attended her local school.
Teaching methods were strict, with any child caught swearing being made to stand in the corner and wash their mouth out with carbolic soap.
Unable to afford further education, Mrs Woodward left school at the age of fifteen.
“You went to work at fifteen then, I was a librarian. In those times you were just glad to get a job,” she said, “it’s getting like that again now.”
In 1996 she retired from her work in a plant hire company in Milton Keynes and retired to Poole along with her husband, whom she has known since she was 9.
Much of their time is now devoted to fishing, sailing and travelling, particularly to Italy, where they have visited such cultural sites as Sorrento, Venice and Pisa.
The couple have one daughter, who lives in Warwick, and three grandchildren, one of whom has recently gone to Kingston University to study fashion design.

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