EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE: Ten years editing the ‘Tiser

“A-HA.” “A-ha.” “A-ha.”

It was June 10 2012 and the next day would be my first as the editor of the Rotherham Advertiser. I had driven over from Bolton — my previous home — that afternoon and checked in at the Holiday Inn at Canklow.

I looked out of my window, took a picture of the electricity pylons in the fields opposite and prepared myself by heading to the bar for a pint (closing in on £4 even then).

Within a couple of weeks I had witnessed the Olympic Torch procession, been to the first game at the Millers new ground and met manager Steve Evans in the aforementioned hotel, where I still “lived”.

My Friday morning check-outs — work bag, work clothes, bag of other clothes, gym bag, food and drink (largely Pot Noodles and cup-a-soups as I wasn’t paying the extortionate food prices there!) and washing — had become almost comedic as I rebooked for the next week.

Adding to the excitement, it was a different room every time as they couldn’t guarantee that over the weekend someone wouldn’t need the one I had — and I could swear I almost caught the “a-ha” from the reception staff as I stumbled through the double doors with my load.

Everyone made the Partridge joke — “a-ha” —and I laughed along — “ha-ha” — while internally dying until the house in Bolton sold at Christmas — “ho ho (ho)” — and I moved out.

Ten years have rushed by, some parts good, some bad. In that time the company was taken over, many jobs went, some came, we moved from Manvers into Rotherham and closed the Record.

The world altered and estate agents and garages no longer advertised — the cause of the majority of our loss of pagination.

The CSE scandal broke and the planet’s media descended on Rotherham, the MP was imprisoned for an expenses scandal, we received a lengthy ban from the New York Stadium, fell out with the police over their operation surrounding an EDL march, won a team award for our coverage of the New Zealand terror attack, helped persuade Facebook to change its policy on comments on stories, had a beer produced in our name by Chantry Brewery, survived the pandemic and backed the town as it re-opened.

We have upset many — usually those on the wrong end of court stories — and delighted others, while never forgetting that the reason we exist is to hold authority to account and to fight for the people of Rotherham, reporting on positives as well as negatives.

I wanted to work here because the Rotherham Advertiser is a rare independent voice among a sea of corporate nonsense governed by how many clicks a news organisation can tempt from those unwilling to shell out for news but happy to comment on every story they can find for free.

Many of those newspapers have gone to the wall and left behind a trail of destruction for those who continued to fight. A trail of clickbait and news that doesn’t pay, causing redundancies and newspaper closures across the country.

I never thought I would get to edit a newspaper, certainly didn’t expect to last this long — invitation to reader to insert sarcastic comment — and it genuinely has been and still is a privilege.

A lot has happened in ten years. It always does. A-ha.