Fast paced stuff, even in Hackney

This week I had my own experience of the ever-changing, fast paced nature of the news.

It is only a small scale example, but still very relevant.

As part of my patch work in Hackney Downs, I had interviewed a bookshop owner about her new bookshop ‘Pages of Hackney’ on Lower Clapton Road. This would not necessarily make front page news, so I was looking for something colourful I could report on when interviewing her.  She mentioned author and writer, Iain Sinclair had popped into the shop. This made a possible news story, as he had expressed his admiration of the shop and offered to do a reading of his new book there.

Iain Sinclair, taken from http://www.ballardian.com

The news story was written, it was short but it fitted the criteria for local news, and although it wasn’t ground breaking, I focused on the fact that a local ‘celebrity’ had approved of the new shop.

Within the week, Iain Sinclair suddenly became a household name (amongst my collegues anyway). He had written an article in the Guardian, revealing that he has now been banned from reading his new book at Stoke Newington Library – for comments he made disapproving of the 2012 Olympics. He appeared on Radio 4’s Today Programme.

There have been comment pieces about the decision this weekend in the Independent and Times Online.

My article has now been scrapped, and I am in the process of re-writing it follwing this news event. I have been in contact with the bookshop owner, and she has informed me that the reading at her bookshop is to go ahead. My news story has now become 100 times more relevant, it could even be exclusive news – all in the space of a few days.

Here’s hoping my fellow news paper producers think it’s front page material in our newspaper production on Thursday.