Feline fine

Sarah Radford came to talk to us today. She is an alumnus of the Cardiff School of Journalism - having graduated in 2004 with a diploma in newspaper journalism - and now works as an online journalist at The Newbury Weekly News. Their website was recently voted Newspaper Society Weekly Newspaper of the Year 2006.

Sarah is a fine example of a multi-skilled modern journalist. Although trained in newspaper journalism, she made the transition to online journalism very smoothly, and - as she demonstrated in her lecture today - is more than comfortable wielding a video camera.

I must admit, I always thought there was something a bit small-time and parochial about local and regional newspapers. But Sarah's lecture made me realise that, with a little bit of graft and imagination, it can be a tremendously rewarding form of journalism.

Local and regional journalists may spend a lot of time covering village fetes and cats stuck up trees, but they are able to connect with their readers on a much more intimate level than their national counterparts. Sarah represents a vital source of information in her Newbury community, and this notion of the journalist as valued local story-teller makes me feel ever so slightly more certain that I have chosen the right career after all.