Getting back to the cut and thrust of the newsroom

Nub News editor Philip Evans continues his series looking back over his 55-year career in journalism, many years of which have been spent covering East Devon.

Whilst I enjoyed my early years as the Axminster and Lyme Regis district reporter for Pulman's Weekly News, gaining a thorough understanding of what community journalism was all about, I found, working from home with little day-to-day contact with my colleagues, that I missed the cut and thrust camaraderie of the newsroom.

During this period my marriage broke down and I decided it was time to look to pastures new, taking over as chief reporter at the Bridport and Lyme Regis News, and then getting a job as deputy editor of the Sidmouth Herald, owned in those days by former Fleet Street journalist Jimmy Hall.

I had nine very happy years at Sidmouth during which time I met my wife-to-be, Jackie, who lived in Salcombe Regis. It was a bit of a whirlwind romance really and within a year we were married.

When I joined the Herald Jimmy had joined forces with two other former Fleet Street reporters, Ken Rowe and Frank Sharples, to open a print plant in Honiton after Ken and Frank had launched two free weeklies, the Honiton News and Seaton News.

Jimmy wanted to expand his operation into Exeter and whilst he launched the Exeter Weekly News, Frank Sharples took over as editor of the Sidmouth Herald with me as his deputy. I can't remember why, but the tie-up between the Herald and East Devon News did not continue and I took on the editor's job.

We had a very happy team at the Herald. Jimmy's wife Doreen ran the front house, his daughter Penny was the photographer and I had four reporters – Helen Case, David Johnson (who went into local radio), Mike Beard, who went on to edit the Brighton Argus, and Geoff Baker who ended up in Fleet Street before becoming Paul McCartney's PR.

Mark Holland joined us as a 16-year-old sports reporter and went onto to work on national newspapers in Australia before becoming one of the most influential newspaper executives in the Pacific.

Mark, now a successful author, regularly keeps in touch and we meet when he returns to the UK to chew the fat about our days at the Herald.

Trevor Vanstone, who lived in Newton Poppleford, spent some time in the newsroom on work experience and was the butt of some cruel jokes, as was the norm in those days, but he took it in good spirit and went on to become editor of the Midweek Herald which I launched in 1981.

Steve Burton also joined us as a second photographer and he too went on to work for national newspapers. At that time, we also launched the Exmouth herald.

We worked hard – Jimmy made sure of that – but we learned a great deal from him and we had a great deal of fun, especially after the paper was put to bed on a Thursday evening and we all went for a drink at the Black Horse, often ending up at the weekly disco at the Cat & Fiddle, at Clyst St Mary.

I had no experience of the commercial side of the business when I joined the Herald. In my early days in the town the traders of Sidmouth used to bring in their advertising copy into the office every Saturday morning.

But with the arrival of free papers, this started to dwindle so I had to take some responsibility for advertising revenue and was appointed managing editor.

I remember well my first attempt at selling advertising. With the assistance of Helen Shields, who worked in our production department, we decided to do an ad feature on Ottery St Mary and we agreed I would take one side of the street and Helen did likewise on the other side.

When we met up for lunch to compare notes, I had sold just one ad but Helen, who had never sold advertising before, had done considerably better. I wonder why?

Following the launch of the Midweek Herald, we decided we would have to appoint a dedicated sales rep and Phil Able, who worked on the Kingsbridge Gazette, joined us as advertising manager and did an excellent job.

With my additional management duties, we recruited cricket fanatic John Goodwin as deputy editor. He was enticed to Sidmouth by the town's picturesque and successful cricket club and took over as editor after I left the company.

When the arrangements we had with the East Devon News ceased, the Herald was printed in Bristol and that led me to my next career move.

The owner of the print company was interested in becoming a publisher and approached me to launch a new group of free newspapers in the West Country.

This led to the launch of Star newspapers with papers in Tiverton, Taunton, Bridgewater, Yeovil and West Dorset. Phil Able came with me and there followed five heady years we had the temerity to challenge all the major publishing houses in the West Country.

This was a time when I started to make a name for myself, especially after being appointed chairman of an industry organisation that promoted national advertising for the free press.

This led to me being approached by a recruitment company and I was head hunted to become managing director of a family-owned newspaper group in East London which had been acquired by Independent Newspapers in Ireland, run by Tony O'Reilly, now Sir Anthony O'Reilly, one of the world's most successful and charismatic businessmen and former Irish international rugby player to boot.

So I went from living in lovely Lyme Regis to working in Dagenham with a posh flat in Docklands as one of the top five per cent newspaper managers in the UK.

In my next article I will explain how I made that transition to embrace life among the London media giants.

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