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Education:
Highbury
Grove Secondary School, London 1982-1987
Islington
Sixth Form Centre, London 1987-1989
University
of Sussex, Brighton 1990-1994
University
of California at Santa Barbara, America 1992-1993
The
Editorial Centre, Hastings 1994
Work
history:
1986
- 1990
Reporter
at Parikiaki, a Cypriot weekly newspaper based in London
Reference:
Lambros Lambrou
1994
- 1997
Reporter
for the Western Gazette,
a Somerset and Dorset weekly newspaper
Reference:
Peter O'Reilly
1997
- 1999
News
editor at the newly-created online editorial department for Bristol
United Post and Press.
Reference:
Eric Rayner
1999
- 2001
I
was recruited as health reporter and promoted to deputy news editor
at the Bath Chronicle, a
daily newspaper.
Reference:
Paul Wiltshire
2001
- 2002
Deputy
editor of the Big Issue South West in Bristol which is a magazine
sold by the homeless.
Reference:
Rich Cookson
2002
- 2003
News
editor at the Somerset
Standard & Guardian, a two-edition weekly newspaper covering
north Somerset.
Reference:
Jo Roughton
2003
- present
Freelance
journalist and communications consultant
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Qualifications
and skills:
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Nine
O-levels, three A-levels and a degree in American Literature
(2:1)
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Post-graduate
diploma in journalism
-
Full
clean driving licence
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Experienced
sub-editor familiar with QuarkXpress, InDesign and Photoshop.
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An
effective researcher, interviewer, reporter and writer. I write
accurately, to length and on time.
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Wide
management experience either on news desks in charge of
reporters, liaising with senior editorial staff or
commissioning and overseeing freelancers.
-
Excellent
people skills honed through my jobs. I am used to arriving
at short notice in offices and expected to get on as well as getting the
job done.
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Proven
track record in public relations including writing
communications plans, organising press conferences, dealing with
the media, crisis management and much more. (Click here for examples of my
work)
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Research,
writing and production of any editorial from press releases to
publicity brochures, pamphlets to newsletters.
Personal
interests:
I
have always been interested
in politics. I set up a Liberty group at university, and worked for Campaign
for Press and Broadcasting Freedom and CND.
I
started working as a journalist as a 16-year-old. I worked for
student newspapers at Sussex (Sussxpress) and California (The
Daily Nexus).
One
of the perks of my job is getting to write book reviews as I am an
avid reader. Favourite authors include
Ian Rankin and Iain M Banks, favourite books include Microserfs.
I
don't go to the cinema as often as I would like so it's usually DVDs
for me. Desert Island DVDs would be Apocolypse Now, Chinatown, The
Godfather.
I
am a member of ecolerne which
is an action group based in Colerne which aims to highlight issues
of sustainability and social justice.
I
am a parish councillor in Colerne and have been since 2005.
I've
supported Arsenal ever since
I grew up in north London. My first game was a 3-2 loss to Spurs at
Pat Jennings' testimonial. The last time I went to Highbury it was a
terrible 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday. I've seen Arsenal
several times in cup competitions and they've never won. So rather
than jinx them I stay at home or go down the pub to watch them. Of
course the genius of
Arsene Wenger also has something to do with their performance. |