Reporter Deb Luxon has already made her mark since joining our editorial team in December 2023, having been announced as one of the six finalists in the Young Journalist of the Year category in the annual Society of Editor’s annual awards.
She talks about her work reporting on the news in local communities for our trusted Wales news title Cambrian News and the appeal of working for a company which “values local and community news”.
What are the main responsibilities in your role?
I source news stories from established contacts and relationships within the different local communities, from north Gwynedd to as far south as Carmarthen. I like to get out and meet people to share their stories, even if that means a long drive to get there.
As well as writing for the newspaper I create online content and video. I interview people and I take the photos and videos which I then edit before they are uploaded to our website and social media accounts.
What was the appeal of joining the company?
I was looking to get back into local news having done other things. Before joining here I worked for a national news agency which was too impersonal, I didn’t feel able to establish connections with the communities I was working with. I wanted to go back to being a community reporter. I worked for Reach for three years at the start of my career in local news.
I was born in London and grew up in the south east, joining the Cambridge News as an apprentice after running the politics section of my university newspaper and working for media freedom groups, and have now passed my senior reporter qualifications. I was trying to see if there was a way of working in local news without working for a large corporation. I saw the opportunity to work for Tindle in Mid Wales and it ticked all the boxes.
What does a typical day in your role involve?
It has been a learning curve to work in a place which is so rural. Working here has allowed me to think differently about news, what it means to communities here and how to come by it. I start my day going through my emails to see if there are any stories I can write up, which could be a press release or some other information which can be turned into a news story. We each have a responsibility to monitor our website and make sure we have the stories to fill the editorial slots on there and in the newspaper.
If there is an enquiry about a story which is interesting and can be developed I speak to local people or organisations to verify the information and see if there’s a bigger trend we can dig into. I monitor different social media feeds from local organisations and businesses as well as people known locally in the community. Facebook groups are a goldmine for local information. We need to be ready to drop everything to write breaking news.
What was the work which was recognised with the award nomination?
I wrote a long form piece about the death of Carol Kovacs, whose body was found in Aberystwyth harbour. His story allowed me to open up the wider homelessness issue facing our region. Carol Kovacs had been sleeping rough locally and he was known to be struggling with a drink problem. I saw posts on Facebook from people who said they knew him and reached out to find out what really happened to him, after the police didn’t seem to know or care.
Carol was a Romanian national who came to England. Through this story I was able to look at the wider issues of EU nationals struggling with homelessness post-Brexit, as well as Aberystwyth residents not being able to access social housing on their doorstep. I was able to write 6000 words because of the support of the editor and my team. It ran in the newspapers across six pages.
Which colleagues do you interact with the most in your working day?
Everyone works remotely and most of my interactions are with my news editor Dylan Davies and the editor Mick O’Reilly. They encouraged me to look very deeply at the Kovacs story. I am not sure how many editors would have the authority to do that.
What do you enjoy about working for Tindle?
I like the freedom of picking the stories I work on and being able to run with them. I love doing the weekly 2000 word feature for the paper which has helped hone my long form writing skills. There is a lot of freedom to look the news that we are interested in. The company values local and community news.
What are your interests outside of work?
Where I live there is a really big and active LGBT+ community. I go to events, play football with the local team and hike with my dog. I ran a spoken word night in London which has followed me to Mid Wales, where I now lead a writing group.