My day: The alarm usually goes off at 6am so I can be in the office an hour later. Among my first tasks are checking Twitter and producing the What’s On tweets if I haven’t done them in advance the night before.
I used to be one of about seven editors across as many titles but now I am the sole editor of eight paid for editions. I am fortunate to have some excellent colleagues capable of handling the day to day running of Flintshire and South Cheshire leaving me to concentrate on Chester and Ellesmere Port. I liaise closely with the reporting teams - they tell me what they are working on, I ask them to pursue certain lines of inquiry.
I also work closely with our digital and communities team, led by Jo Henwood, playing my own part in loading material to our website and keeping us ticking over on Twitter (I leave Facebook to others!).
Then there is the putting together of the printed products which I do in close collaboration with Chester story editor (they used to be known as sub-editors) Stephen Smith. We have a conference every Monday but have a constant dialogue as things can change hour by hour - the concept of weekly journalists is rather out-dated in the era of 24/7 media.
In addition to all this, I regularly get pulled out of the routine to attend meetings in Liverpool. The working day usually finishes somewhere between 6.30-7pm although I have remote access to our system from home which I frequently find myself using.
Dress: Traditional suit and tie – occasionally a bow tie for events like the Cheshire Business Awards.
What is the favourite part of your job? I have been lucky enough over so many years to work with some wonderful individuals and to be part of a team where it is possible to call people friends as well as colleagues. And when that team gets to work on a breaking news story where we have to cover a lot of ground in a very short space of time, there is nothing better.
What is the least favourite part of your job? Getting things wrong - which thankfully happens rarely. Despite the popular perception of journalists as only interested in a ‘good story to sell newspapers’, accuracy is like a religion to us. We really do everything in our power to get things right and it feels like a punch in the stomach when we slip up because we feel we have let people down. And when we do, it is invariably due to too few people trying to do too many things.
What would be your dream job if you weren't doing what you do now? Film director. I’ve been a huge movie fan since childhood and I’ve always felt my natural home would probably have been a film set if life had taken a different path.
How do you relax when you are not working? Movies, music, TV, theatre, books. I am a genuine geek and proud of it so worship the likes of Doctor Who, Sherlock, Buffy, Star Trek, Spooks, X Files. My current obsession is Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom. I can make a powerful case for Sorkin to be regarded as the 21st century Shakespeare. I’d like to add some form of physical activity or exercise but I would be lying through my teeth!
What is your favourite film? Any one of half a dozen Woody Allen movies although I usually plump for Manhattan. But I must make mention of Blade Runner, The Apartment, His Girl Friday and I’m a real franchise freak so Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Bond..
What is your favourite book ? Our Mutual Friend by Dickens, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, all of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. However, undoubtedly the most important and influential book ever produced is the First Folio of Shakespeare’s works.
What is your favourite song? Superstition by Stevie Wonder, album The Sensual World by Kate Bush, Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin.
If a film was made of your life, who would you like to play you? Back in the day, I was told I bore a passing resemblance to Peter Davison and, as a lifelong Doctor Who fan, I’m perfectly happy with that choice.
Have you had your 15 minutes of fame? Just after the last General Election, when there was a hung Parliament and the Tories won Chester back from Labour, I was invited to appear on national BBC Breakfast TV. I was interviewed live by the River Dee on a freezing cold May morning by none other than future Strictly star Susanna Reid. Regrettably, she didn’t flirt with me the way she did recently with Alex Turner!
FACT FILE
Job: Executive Editor, Cheshire Weeklies with Trinity Mirror Cheshire, responsible for the titles covering Chester, Flintshire, Ellesmere Port and South Cheshire.
Born: The City Hospital, Hoole, (now a housing estate!)
Education: Queen’s Park High School, Chester College of Further Education (now West Cheshire College). Studied journalism at Preston Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire).
Family life: Married to Linda for 27 years, with three children aged 20, 18 and 10.
Next week: Helen Kirk, optometrist at C&G Mullens Opticians in Chester and Warrington Hospital
