There's a man in reception, wants to talk about his aubergines
We meet the author behind a brilliant tribute to local journalism - plus our round-up of what's going on in newsrooms around the UK
Hello,
Welcome to your weekly round up from Behind Local News.
Today’s update is a little different. We’re delighted to have a Q&A from Alex Morrison, the author who has just published There’s Someone In Reception, a brilliant book celebrating the stories local journalists have shared about what happens when that call came from the front counter.
We’ve also got a round-up of the latest news from local news - no surprise the election is starting to make headlines for regional reporters - and also new jobs being advertised from local newsrooms around the country.
As ever, we love your feedback - let us know what we’re getting wrong (or maybe right!)
Thanks for reading,
Behind Local News
New this week:
Editor’s invite for PM to ‘try again’ after local journalists snub
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been accused of doing a ‘hit and run’ visit to a local town, refusing to take questions from local journalists in the process.
Journalists team up to hear views of 5,000 voters before General Election
Local newsrooms around the UK have teamed up to ensure the voices of regular voters are heard ahead of the General Election.
Wales politicians urged to scrap plan which would force newspapers out of business
Editors of news media titles in Wales have warned of the harmful consequences for local democratic engagement if the Welsh government presses ahead with plans to remove council tax notices from printed local newspapers.
Editor challenges Which? after it pans holidays in her city
An editor has vowed to fight for her city after it was named ‘worst big city for a staycation’ in a UK-wide survey.
BelfastLive launches list of 35 under 35s doing amazing things in home city
A local news website has doubled down on its promise to celebrate the city it reports on by launching a new list higlighting people under 35 doing amazing things in its area.
Good news this week:
Football, murder, politics and food: The local newsroom podcast winners provided a rich mix of ideas at the Publisher podcast awards last week.
Congratulations to The Scotsman, which has unveiled a new identity, complete with new strapline ‘Dare to be Honest’ - a nod to famous Scottish poet Robert Burns, and a phrase which means so much more in an era of misinformation.
The Public Notices Portal, a cross-industry project aimed at ensuring public notices reach a wide audience online, has celebrated attracted its millionth user - with data showing younger audiences are engaging with them too.
And congratulations to NCTJ chairman Kim Fletcher, who is standing down from the role after 20 years - and is be the organisation’s emeritus chairman in recognition of his commitment to the training body.
New jobs this week:
Each week, we’ll share some of the latest jobs in local news which have been sent to us. If you have one to promote, please contact us here
“Then there’s the man who glued his hands to a newspaper counter as a way of demanding coverage” - Inside the book which began as a tweet, and then went viral
When Alex Morrison posted a tweet reflecting on a special part of life as a local journalist - the perils of the reception walk-in - he ended up creating such a discussion that a book was born. There’s Someone in Reception is out now…
The book began life as a Tweet a couple of years ago. What prompted you to write that Tweet?
I’ve had the idea for this book in mind for years. I can’t remember why I posted the tweet when I did – but the vast number of replies suddenly turned the book from a vague idea into something that had to be done.
The thread beneath the Tweet is a brilliant read for anyone who has worked in local journalism in recent decades. What were your thoughts as the messages were coming in?
I was amazed. At the time I didn’t use social media very much, so I never expected hundreds – maybe thousands – of people to comment. At first, I just enjoyed all the brilliant stories people posted, but I was also thinking: “Oh. I’m going to have to deliver a book now.”
Why do you think the topic became so popular?
I think everyone who has worked in local news has at least one memorable walk-in story. These range from major front-page news to truly weird experiences that never got published – such as a person who brought in a really large slug, and another who glued his hands to a newspaper counter as a way of demanding coverage. As most local newspaper offices have closed over the last few years, there’s also a sense of nostalgia for a world of walk-ins that no longer exists. I feel very lucky to have worked in the last days of old-fashioned, print-first local news – and I hope the book stands as a tribute to that.
It's a big leap from a viral Tweet to a book. What happened next?
I started contacting the people who posted the best, funniest, most interesting or moving stories. Somewhat to my surprise, almost everyone agreed to be interviewed. Over the next year or so, I did as many interviews as I could (with work and my young children absorbing most of my time!). After that, I started trying to organise these disparate tales into some kind of order, and over many months a narrative started to take shape – with some help from friends, old colleagues and an editor.
This might seem like an obvious question to ask - but what's your most memorable reception encounter while working in local news?
My first journalism job was at the Crawley News, and I start the book with the story of a man who walked in with a bag of aubergines. The man had moved to Crawley from Italy 40 years earlier, and every year he had tried to grow aubergines, as he had back in Italy. At first, the crop always failed – but over time he’d had more and more success. By this method, he said he had discovered climate change. Warming conditions had allowed him to grow the bag of aubergines he brought to our office. My editor came up with the headline: “Aubergenius”. In some ways, it’s just a funny story about an eccentric gardener – but he was a remarkably warm and engaging man, who grew all sorts of food for the local hospice. Though I didn’t know it at the time, meeting him started me on the path that led me to write this book.
With fewer newsroom offices, and even fewer newspaper receptions, operating especially since the pandemic, there is a sense that the reception encounter is at risk of being lost. How did this come through in the interviews you conducted?
The journalists I interviewed had differing views on the health of local news, but no one denied that office closures have largely stopped walk-ins. There are a few exceptions – but in most places there simply isn’t an office to walk into. The book reflects that and I don’t downplay the damage this has done. However, I also look at the positive – the new local journalism models that are now appearing, and the current generation of “digital native” reporters who are finding stories just as weird and wonderful as any walk-in.
There is an argument that in the world of social media, the real-life newspaper reception encounter can be replaced by talking to many more people, every day, who are reading local news. What do you think?
I wish this was true. But on social media news is mixed up with a never-ending stream of rumour, commentary and misinformation. For the public, it’s very hard to distinguish what is news (written by professional journalists) from… everything else that’s posted online. This is compounded by the fact that lots of people now call themselves journalists – when in fact they’re influencers, commentators, lobbyists, campaigners, etc.
In terms of newsgathering, social media can probably replace the walk-in to some extent (I have a chapter in the book about brilliant stories sourced online). But not everyone is on social media, and these platforms see what users like and feed it back to them – so your social media experience is always an echo chamber, even if you try hard to engage with a variety of people.
Put simply, social media is useful but it’s not a like-for-like replacement for walk-ins.
There are some amazing stories both in the Tweet thread, and in the parts of the book you've teased on social media. Which stories really surprised you?
This question always overloads my brain – too many options! How about: the case of the kidnapped tortoise, the man who walked in with a hand grenade, the sailor who played loud Britney Spears music to deter pirates, the reporter taken hostage by a reader, or the claim that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Skegness.
There’s a chilling (for journalists) story about a paper that reported a death but put the wrong picture on the front page – so the reporter had to go through the phone book and knock on every door with a person of that name, looking for both the family of the dead person, and the living person who’d been wrongly reported as having died.
And there’s one about a reporter who picked up the phone to find herself talking to a gunman during a siege. The gunman was embarrassed and wanted advice on bringing the siege to a peaceful conclusion. Sadly, siege negotiation isn’t covered by NCTJ training.
Does the reception walk-in experience resonate outside of local newspapers, for example at the local BBC radio stations?
Yes, the book has plenty of stories from radio too. One that sticks in my memory is about a homeless man who approached a BBC radio station and said: “I’m going to die”. The man was a drug addict and had been sleeping rough in a graveyard. The BBC team could have turned him away, but they brought him in for an interview, set him up with a local homeless charity and followed his story of recovery over a period of months.
What can local journalists do to recreate the potential of that amazing ‘walk in exclusive' in world where receptions and physical newsrooms on every high street are much rarer?
I’m not a journalist now, so I’m wary of giving advice to current reporters. However, I interviewed lots of current journos and I can pass on their advice: answer the phone, read your emails/letters, call your contacts, never rip stories straight from the internet, use a variety of online tools but don’t rely on these exclusively. The digital revolution has changed a lot, but people are much the same and talking to them remains the only real way to find and tell their stories.
And finally - where next after reception? Have there been any suggestions on what could be the next topic which unites local journalists to share their memories? The dreaded vox pop maybe?
The current book does have a chapter on vox pops and death knocks, so anyone interested can check that out. In terms of future projects, I’m not sure. I love local news and there are always more stories to tell, but I’m not ready to commit to another one just yet.
There’s Someone In Reception, by Alex Morrison, is available on Amazon here.