Thursday, January 21, 2010
Let's go round again....
All change at the Courier again as Owen Griffiths is replaced and Miriam Taylor has also moved on. I was paid a visit by new Tonbridge reporter, Lucy Clapham, who tells me that she has been working at some newspaper group in High Wycomb and hails from East Sussex, although she has never actually been to Tonbridge before. That's encouraging isn't it! She seemed very nice and I'm sure she'll do the best job she can being stationed in their Longfield Road (North Farm) offices and visiting Tonbridge to cover the odd story and I'm a little flattered that I was one of the first people she visited trying to build up her contacts. But how can the people of our town be best served by this constant musical chairs of their reporters. It was bad enough when they were based in Tonbridge High Street but now they're not surely we need some continuity and at least someone who's already familiar with the town. Perhaps I'm being unfair and we should give Lucy a fair chance, although she'll probably also be off anyway within a year or so, just when she's got to know the town and a few of it's people. If you have any juicy stories to tell her then this is her telephone number at the Courier: 01892 (note that's a Tunbridge Wells code) 686965....
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6 comments:
Come on Tonbridge Blog, give the girls a chance - she's obviously fairly bright if she's tracked you down already as a source!
Sunny_Tonny: okay you my have a point there!
Oh Come on Tonbridge Blog you are beside yourself that she has search you out - it's obvious why too as you have a blog on Tonbridge and did that column thing in the Courier. Doesn't take a super sleuth after all does it. And... give the girl a chance like Sunny_Tonny writes. Who would want to stay and be a reporter on the local rag - surely these young things generally just onto their second job after their MA in English from the red bricks will want to go on to better things, and not stick around some dull little tin pan can of a town like Tonbridge. You know I'm right.
Delia: perhaps you have a point but then surely that means they should get someone in who doesn't have those kind of ambitions and is just prepared to stick with it for several years at least. Rather we have a situation whereby the Courier changes all of its Tonbridge staff too often. So all continuity is lost and there seems to be no one there to show them the ropes, to pass on tips, contacts and short cuts to good stories....
Absolutely - you hit the nail on the head - they should employ a resident - a local. You could do it - I could even do it, my daughter could do it but The Courier isn't really interested in Tonbridge as you point out. Did you see the vacancy advertised. I didn't! So even if this young thing on her second job is good, and I am sure she is, (and is probably coming cheap at the price too) she won't stay and will be on to to bigger and better things. This is probably simply a stepping stone in her carrer. But we all know how it works; such a shame they seem not to twig themselves. Are you reading Ian Read.
I thought The Courier was quite intersting this week, and your Lucy's article on the Bishop's Oak pub was very good (dismal story though), even if the "couple go on expensive holiday" story was dire.
but why is Frank Chapman's historical column called "Warwick Diary"?
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