For the second year running a UCLan graduate has been named the Johnston Press Trainee of the Year.

Chris Robinson, who works at the Shields Gazette and left UCLan in 2004, was announced as the winner of the award at a ceremony in Birmingham.

Over 300 newspapers are eligible to nominate a trainee reporter and Chris said to win was ìoverwhelming.î

ìThe evening was nerve wracking and when they announced my name I didnít expect it. I really enjoy just doing my job and so to receive this recognition means a lot.î

Chris had to submit his best pieces of work to enter, which included a piece on local councillors expenses, a campaign to keep asylum seekers from Peru in the country and a story on a little girl with an incurable disease.

He said: ìI wrote a series of stories on a little girl called Ellie Luther who has an incurable skin condition called Ichthyosis. We launched a campaign to raise awareness of the disease and helped to raise £14,000. I also ran the Great North Run for the Ichthyosis Support Group and raised a further £300.î

Community spirit

Chris thinks it is community spirit that helped him to win the award.

ìThe Shields Gazette is a community newspaper and you need to be willing to get involved in that community. It definitely helps with the job and building up the trust and loyalty of the local people.î

Chris recently took his community spirit further and because he is also the specialist entertainment reporter for the newspaper and regularly reviews local theatre pieces, he decided to see what life is like on the other side of the curtain.

ìI ran a column called Chrisís curtain call where I joined a local theatre group and got a part in a play called ëMy friend Mrs Flint.í I really enjoyed it and it was good to see what itís actually like to be an actor.î

He said whilst it is hard to pick his favourite story over the last two and a half years he has been at the Gazette, he is most proud of the stories he wrote on Ellie Luther.

Chris added: ìIf Iím being honest what I enjoy most about my job is making a difference to other peopleís lives and always setting myself new challenges.î

UCLan graduate Nick Owens also won the Johnston Press Trainee of the Year award. It was part of a clean sweep of awards for the journalist whilst he worked at the Lancashire Evening Post. He was also named the Newspaper Society’s Young Journalist of the Year, the Press Gazette’s UK Young Reporter of the Year and the BNFL North West News Reporter of the Year. Nick now works as a reporter for the Sunday Mirror.

More info
BA (Hons) Journalism
Shields Gazette
Johnston Press plc
Ichthyosis Support Group

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