Adam Smith: “I don’t know where my life would have gone if it hadn’t been for journalism”
Umar Hassan sits down with hard news journalist Adam Smith to discuss about his journalism journey, exposing corruption at Sandwell Council and his stint in London for the Metro.
When I interviewed Adam Smith in person earlier in the year, it was at a time where social distancing did not exist, as well as the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the United Kingdom for much of the year.
How times change nine months later with interviews taking place remotely on Zoom and Skype due to COVID-19. I was very fortunate to interview Adam at the Arthur Robertson pub in Perry Barr, Birmingham in January 2020.
Adam’s career in journalism has been anything but a rollercoaster. His first job in the industry was working for the now defunct Lichfield Mercury as a reporter more than two decades ago, before going on to work for the Birmingham Mail, Halesowen News, and in London for the Metro newspaper.
He is still working in local journalism after returning back home to Birmingham in 2019, but for the hyperlocal news website Erdington Local as a Chief Reporter since August 2020.
He’s also written a book about how he volunteered to get Barack Obama elected as President of the United States of America in 2008, titled “Obama and Me: The Incredible Story of a YouTube Sensation” under his pseudonym Steve Zacharanda.
Historian to journalism
Before he went into journalism, Adam had wanted to become a historian. “I was at Great Barr Comprehensive and my marks were D5, E6 or whatever it was. Everything was absolutely rubbish except for one subject which is history, which was A1. I would have been expelled if it wasn’t for my talent for history.
“I was really into history and politics so I was never really given any advice about university or what my next step would be. I would have definitely at that time had the talent to maybe even go to Oxford or Cambridge but I didn’t have any anyone guiding me.
“After university, I realised I couldn’t afford to be a historian so it was journalism and thank God because I was selling insurance for Direct Line for £30,000 in 1999 or 2000. I was going to buy a house for £52,000 on the Perry Beeches estate, and then I saw an advert in the Great Barr Observer for a job with the Lichfield Mercury.”
When Adam went for his interview at the Lichfield Mercury, the interviewer questioned why he would take a massive pay cut to work in journalism.
“The first line of my interview by Sam Holliday was you’re on £30,000 selling insurance and we’re offering you £6,000 to be a journalist. I looked him in the eye and said I don’t want to sell insurance, I’m a w****r at the moment, I want to change the world and I want to be a journalist.
“I think that one answer proved how much I wanted it that I was happy to take a £24,000 cut to do what I really wanted to do,” Adam said in his distinctive Birmingham accent.
Working in London for the Metro
For the first 17 years of his career, Adam worked in local and regional journalism in the West Midlands. It was not until 2017 that he decided to make the move from Birmingham to London to work at the Metro as a News Reporter.
“There were two phases of my Metro career and that was going down there for a week’s trial and being accepted as a news reporter that would be part of the team and having to write between seven and nine stories a day in the newsroom.
“Stories from other publications or wire copy or stuff like that, which is pretty hard coming from a local news background where I always wrote my own stories. It was the first time I’d ever ripped a story by rewriting somebody else’s story. I found that quite hard but I wanted to test myself as local journalist to see if I was good enough in London.”
From news reporter to Westminster and Exclusives
After several months of working as a news reporter, Adam was promoted in the Metro to Exclusives and Westminster Reporter in 2018, where he thrived in finding exclusive stories to cover at the publication.
“The second phase was with each week, you had to come up with five exclusive ideas for stories where I excelled at that because I enjoyed it. It was where all the people in the newsroom were very much focused on the number of hits they got from their stories or stories that they were reposting.
Due to the amount of exclusives I got, I was given the job of exclusives and Westminster reporter. That was a bit different because I’d still have to write a lot of copy but I’d have more time to look for exclusives. It was hard work.”
Exposing corruption in Sandwell Council
Coming from a working class background, there have been many proud moments that Adam has had in his career in journalism.
However, there’s one story that stands out among the many stories and investigations he’s covered and that’s exposing corruption in Sandwell Council when he worked at the Halesowen News.
“It involved me being threatened, smeared, late night phone calls, physical threats, all to give up a story, which was about the Deputy Leader of Sandwell Council swindling the people of Sandwell, which is one of the poorest areas in Britain for his own financial gain.
“Then, the subsequent police investigation which was also dropped which it was amazing to follow a story and see it, get it and think you’ve got something and it just keeps on going, then you realise this is corruption on a massive scale and you are the only journalist who’s got the b***s to write about it.”
Being the only journalist covering the story around corruption in Sandwell Council
“When you realise that other journalists weren’t going in due to the Leader of Sandwell Council phoning up editors of all the different papers, and saying that we don’t follow Adam Smith’s stories. He’s a bit mad and stuff like that. Realising that you’re on your own really and then basically your story gets stood up. Your lone voice becomes everyone’s because you’re doing the story. You win Journalist of the Year twice and you win Scoop of the Year.”
Adam compared covering the story to being in a real-life film plot but his longevity in journalism is his proudest achievement.
“Doing it for 20 years with a personality, but having this very unique set of circumstances which I managed to always put journalism first in front of almost anything else in my life and thanks to that, I don’t know where my life would have gone if it hadn’t been for journalism.”
