GSMA – Kingston Uni: we won “because we took risks”

Lara O’Reilly is former editor of Kingston University’s River newspaper + now a reporter at Marketing Week…

Winning is sometimes far sweeter when you are not expecting it at all.

Hours before the event two nights ago news was spreading around Twitter that there had been an apparent leak of the Guardian Student Media Awards results.

According to the rumours a press release was sent to current editors of the nominated student publications asking if they would like photos of the event – oh and revealing the winner and runner-up of each category.

Lara O'Reilly and Callum Hornigold

We didn’t know the result for sure; everyone on Twitter was respecting the embargo, but there were plenty of smug-sounding tweets from certain students who seemed to already know the result.

We practiced our gracious losing smiles on the tube to the Guardian offices, still overjoyed that we had been nominated at all.

The ceremony was small, fun and informal – more like a networking event than an awards show, with everyone chatting to students from other publications and introducing themselves to a few of the journos associated with the event.

Working for a tabloid – Part 2

I have now taken on more of a defined role in the office at The People. The News editor has decided that the article about haggling down the prices of school holidays worked very well and he wants a similar consumer story for this Sunday’s paper.

For the editorial team, investigative articles are a source of the most original stories for their section. Though they are also the source of immense frustration because they take a long time to research, facts must be meticulously checked and checked again (unlike stories coming through the Press Association or other wire agencies) and are quite likely to be pulled if they are deemed to be too risky or inaccurate to go to print.