Making his Mark in Journalism

Pictured: Mark Blackman (centre) with Joesph Inglesby (left) and Sean Derbyshire (right)

Former Huyton Today reporter Mark Blackman recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk to two of the news team’s current reporters, Joseph Inglesby and Sean Derbyshire.

Mark is currently attending Widnes College where he is studying AVCE Media and hopes to go on to study for a degree in journalism at John Moores University. Since leaving Knowsley Hey in 2001 he has also worked on a voluntary basis for KCR and, more recently, is one of the team behind Halton FM.

So, did his time working on Huyton Today inspire his interest in working in the media? “Definitely,” said Mark. “It gave me all the interviewing skills I needed and the confidence to speak to people. I had the opportunity to interview people such as Andrew Smith who was the Minister for New Deal at the time. Another reporter, Kate Tran and myself went to Aintree Racecourse and spoke to Mr Smith about the New Deal which was just being launched. We actually got to interview him before ITN did.”

Mark was very positive about the role that Huyton Today played in getting him involved in journalism. “I joined the paper back in 1997. My two friends were already reporters and had worked on the first edition. I basically pestered everybody until they let me join. Working on Huyton Today got me known throughout the borough. It gave me the inspiration to move on and go into journalism. After college I’m hoping to go on to university to study journalism and hopefully get my big break in radio.”

Like all media projects, Huyton Today has moved with the times. “Now the paper has a website with the back issues, people from all over the world can read Huyton Today. They can log on to the website and see what’s happening in the area.”

Mark was one of Huyton Today’s original reporters and all the team wish him every success with his future career.