The internet has given me a new lease of life for my brand of journalism. I tried a couple of days ago to describe what I do and what I try to achieve, so if you will allow me some naval gazing I will share my thoughts on my writing with you.
This is quite difficult to write about as, for me, writing is quite an introverted process which sounds strange as what I am achieving would be looked upon as extroverted. Let me explain. I will take my e-magazine Hethersett Herald as an example. Do I put in hundreds of hours a month for the benefit of the community or is it a perverse way of my justifying my existence? In other words why do I do it? Why do I sit in a room for hour after hour with my own thoughts?
I like to think that I do things for the right reasons and not for some strange ego trip. After all I don't think anyone would put in thousands of hours a year for an ego trip. But enough of that. For many years I had wanted to launch some kind of publication but wasn't sure how or what. Also work and other commitments always got in the way. There were a couple of aborted attempts to produce a publication for the village but in November 2015 I decided to give it a real go.
I am not someone who does things on an impulse. We have all met those who have a blistering idea, throw themselves hook, line and sinker into that idea, then lose enthusiasm and drop it. I know so many of them. I won't start something if I cannot commit to continue it. Back in 1973, I started a personal daily diary with a commitment to continue it as long as I could. This week I completed my 18,000th consecutive entry, never having missed a day in the almost 50 years.
Likewise with Hethersett Herald. I am now on edition 79 and this week I decided to print out all the front pages to put into a folder for promotional purposes. I have just bought an HP printer and subscribed to their ink contract. Initially I have been given six months free in which I can print up to 700 pages a month and when the ink runs out they just send replacements. This is a blistering deal that I am trying to make the most of. Printing off those front pages gave me the chance to have a look at some of the content of the magazine - a kind of snapshot. Then I had a look at some of the inside content and I have to say I'm proud of what has been achieved.
I think the publication has been a good reflection of our village life over around seven years and I hope it will continue to be so in the future. I have only carried a couple of paid for adverts in the seven years. There is no income connected with Hethersett Herald - that was never its purpose. And as there's no income it had to be a publication that could be put online as its primary source.
Content-wise I like to think we have attacked many of the issues facing the village and also brought news, views and features to people. My aim has always been to inform, educate and entertain and hopefully I have achieved this.
I never cease to be amazed at how Herald has become a respected part of the village scene. People ask to have information placed in it and lots of people now send me information and features which I am very grateful to receive. What started primarily as a hobby now seems to be a vital part of local life.
I feel that a village as big as Hethersett deserves some kind of publication to reflect the times we live in and hopefully Hethersett Herald is that publication. It has certainly taken me on a new journalism journey into a sphere I could never have dreamed of decades ago. A sphere where anyone can put together a publication and launch it to the world.
I always remember going into John Lennon's bedroom in a house called Mendips in Liverpool where he lived with his Aunt Mimi for his formative years. It was full of his memorabilia and the comics he used to write as a boy. I used to do the same - taking old notebooks and filing them with infantile drawings and stories and I guess that was preparing me for the sort of thing I am doing today.
I'm sure that the majority of the village residents are unaware of Hethersett Herald, although I do have a healthy readership. So I rely on people passing on the news of its existence.
I like to think that I am the primary source of the spread of information about Hethersett and am proud of that fact. A few months ago I took on the editorship of the village Good News magazine. It was something I had always had in mind as a possibility and it seemed to mesh in well with Herald. This is a Christian church-based publication and helps to enhance the coverage of village life.
Then there are my blogs which I'm also proud of - covering as they do all the nonsense that is my life. I thoroughly enjoy writing these and they are part of what I would call my new world journalism - a way of communicating with lovely people I will probably never have the opportunity to meet as some of them live on the other side of the world.
On a broader level my work also appears in the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News, again covering the village. This has taken me right back to my journalistic roots as I began my career with Eastern Counties Newspapers way back in the mists of time (there's that phrase again).
Finally I have another string to my journalistic bow. I can use my love of history when I edit the Norfolk Ancestor which is the quarterly publication of the Norfolk Family History Society.
I can't pretend that putting all these publications together is easy and at times there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day as I struggle to meet deadlines, but I am grateful to be able to bring news to local people and hope this is appreciated, as I'm sure it is.
When I watch Clive Myrie, Jeremy Bowen or Lyse Doucet reporting from war-torn Ukraine I feel totally inadequate in what I do. But then I realise that mine is a different kind of journalism to theirs and there is place in our lives for both.
One thing is certain and that is I have no intention of giving up on my three aims which I will continue to try to achieve as long as I am willing and able.
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There's a huge dollop of irony about Ed Sheeran's court case which he has won after being accused of plagiarism and basically nicking somebody else's tune.
The irony is from the film "Yesterday" which featured Sheeran and was about a musician who openly passed off other people's work (in this case The Beatles) as his own. A case of art imitating life.