Alison Sandy on the value of regional newspapers and her first job
Regional and rural newspapers have taken a hit in 2020, with many facing redundancies and closures as COVID-19 hits advertising revenue and large media organisations switch their regional newspapers to digital only offerings.
In this first person piece, Seven News FOI Editor and multi-award-winner Alison Sandy reflects on the impact of her first journalism job, with the regional Portland Observer in Victoria.
My first full time journalism job, with Alison Sandy
I started at the Portland Observer in 1998 straight out of uni, ready to conquer the world. If there was any chaos, corruption or evil-doings in this tiny corner of south-western Victoria, I was determined to unearth them. I was armed with a notebook, dictaphone and full wardrobe of power suits and I was not afraid to use them.
I’d left Portland eight years earlier as a shy, very unsure 12-year-old and was back to prove myself as a force to be reckoned with — someone who would report everything without fear or favour. Within six months I’d gone from a third-year cadet to Chief of Staff. It was a baptism of fire but I grasped it with gusto. No amount of misogyny from the councillors and condescending retorts of “good girl” were going to intimidate me. Nor any criticism from our readers — and heaven help them if they dare share it with us.
“Within six months I’d gone from a third-year cadet to Chief of Staff. It was a baptism of fire but I grasped it with gusto.”
A woman who came into the office to complain about our front page of a drug overdose only fuelled the fire as I stood over her and explained our responsibility as the town newspaper to report the news, good and bad no matter how negative it was. Clearly, I lacked tact back then and demonstrated as much when I later interrupted someone else complaining to the editor about my editorial regarding a public debate on the merger of two catholic primary schools with another lecture about how we knew journalism and she didn’t.
I was yet to learn diplomacy. Some who listen to my arguments over the phone with FOI officers might argue I still haven’t.
I did more stories on McDonald’s, the plight of rock lobster fishermen, Alcoa OH&S, wind farms, the alleged dodgy dealings of the council including a controversial streetscape tender and a failed Malaysian technology park than I care to remember.
But my favourite was my big three-part exposé on Portland’s heroin issue where we had a “recovering” addict pretending to shoot up on the front page. It captured the attention of The Sunday Age, which sent a reporter to do his own story, and the council tourism officer joked at a Rotary meeting that they were going to start heroin bus tours.
I remember quoting the Mayor when he threatened me over the phone that “I’d bitten the hand that feeds me” after I did a report he didn’t like. And going to a muddy stud farm in the middle of nowhere in a white suit and sandals to do a story about how to best impregnate horses.
“Those three years are some of the most fun and memorable of my life.”
I learnt so much and am so grateful for the support and patience of my former editor there, Ellen Linke, who had to defend my overwhelming enthusiasm and insensitivity more than once.
Bless regional newspapers, which gave so many of us our start.
Alison Sandy is now FOI Editor for the 7 Network and has worked more than 20 years in the industry, including at The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and the Sunday Mail in Adelaide.
