After completing the NCTJ qualification in journalism I covered events and shifts for a number of different papers including
The Mail on Sunday, The People and
The Sunday Mirror and was finally rewarded with a two page column on the
London Lite, a daily freesheet with a readership of over one million.
As a showbiz reporter it was my responsibility to edit the pages which involved working to a very tight deadline, checking the wires for breaking stories and photos and proofing the details and legality of all the content, always reporting directly to the editor of the paper.
Other weeks I was charged with finding the stories. I was given a large amount of autonomy to do this and relied on a network of contacts and PRs.
I covered dozens of music festivals, most major film premieres, launches of everything from phones to jewelry and hundreds of award ceremonies, from the BAFTAs and the BRITs to the MOBOs in Glasgow and Guinness’s 250th birthday in Dublin. The highlight for me was the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Many stories that I broke were followed up all over the world. With the London Lite being part of the Daily Mail group, numerous stories were syndicated in
The Daily Mail and
The Evening Standard.
A full list can be seen here:
On top of having to provide exclusive stories every day for the column, I was also expected to provide exclusive news stories. I have selected a few here and explained why I am proud of them.
My first splash at the London Lite:
On meeting Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney at his daughter's party, he told me some interesting stories as well as supporting the paper I was working for:
I caught up with Take That on the night their musical premiered, but the boys weren’t too keen on watching the show:
A press day for celebrities and journalists at an adventure park left organisers red-faced when the ride being launched broke down with a few famous faces trapped on board. I was there to report:
I was the first journalist to reveal Frank Lampard’s then beau Christine Bleakly, which was followed up in all the national press:
This is an example of the page I worked for, packed full of exclusive showbiz titbits.