Well, that’s it. My four weeks at Sky News are over. It seemed to go much too quickly but I had a wonderful time and it was a great experience. I’m certain it will stand me in good stead for the future.
My last week was spent with the Sky News website, and after I managed to get my head around the content management system, it proved to be a particularly fruitful week – I managed to get two bylines on the site.
The first came from an idea that popped into my head when I read about civil servants and politicians being advised on how to use Twitter: if Gordon Brown was on Twitter, what would he tweet? So I pitched the idea to my editor and was told to come up with some funny material. I went away and racked my brains and came up with a few mock tweets and to my delight they ran with it and it was put up on the website.
My other byline was a story on a survey from the travel firm ABTA which found that over half of Britons prefer to send and receive postcards, despite the abundance of new technology. I spoke to Brian Lund, a postcard collector and the editor of Picture Postcard Monthly magazine who also very kindly sent me some funny, saucy and historical postcards for a picture gallery to accompany the article.
In addition I had three other pieces published. The first was regarding David Beckham’s latest run in with a fan in LA. The second was concerning Thomas Cook offering German tourists the chance to book their sunbeds early. The third was a story on the advice from Bresstfeeding Network charity that women should continue breastfeeding their children if they have swine flu.
My last day emphasised just how exciting and unpredictable being a journalist is. The day started like any other, I was set to work on a few stories when I got called downstairs.
I had just seen the sad news that Sir Bobby Robson had died aged 76. My editor Jon asked me what my footballing knowledge was like. “Pretty good,” I replied. And with that I was set to work moderating and updating the Sky News CoverItLive blog on Robson’s death.
I didn’t have previous experience with using the software and was to an extent thrown in at the deep end, but I enjoyed getting to grips with it and being involved in a big piece of news, which was evident from that amount of comments that were sent in.
In between updating that I also wrote an article bringing together a collection of the tributes to the man from the likes of Alan Shearer, Tony Blair and Jose Mourinho.
And with that it was time to leave. I will certainly miss Sky, but it had to come to an end sometime. One thing I certainly won’t miss is the 6am starts!
