Sessions at Leeds Trinity Journalism Week 2012 on Thursday 1st March

Louise Easton is the regional head of news for Bauer Yorkshire, managing the news output for Radio Aire, Magic 828, Hallam FM, Magic AM, Viking FM and Magic 1161. She is also the breakfast news reader on Big John at Breakfast on Hallam FM. With more than 8 years experience in commercial radio, Louise is a multi award winning journalist. Louise graduated from Leeds Trinity in 2004, with a Post Graduate Siploma in Bimedia journalism.

Adam Baker, is an entrepreneur and founder of Blottr - a citizen journalism news service. The idea for Blottr came to Adam during 9/11. He was amazed that it took mainstream news services nearly seven minutes to cover the atrocity, even though there were hundreds of people at the scene capturing footage without an outlet to publish it. It was at this juncture he started to realise how powerful citizen journalism could be. There are many stories that go unmentioned in the regional press, national and sometimes international media, and Blottr offers the platform for citizens in the location to report events in realtime and publish these stories on the website.

Ben joined The Times in 2008 after impressing during a week of work experience with the sports desk. Since then he has covered Ryder Cups, the Wimbledon Championships, Premier League football and will be a part of the Times’ 21-man team at the 2012 Olympics in London this summer.
After qualifying with a Masters in English Literature from the University of Glasgow, Ben worked as a location manager on feature films. At the age of 26, he retrained as a journalist on an NCTJ course working on two local newspapers on his way to Wapping.

Richard Peppiatt is a former tabloid reporter who publicly quit the industry over ethical concerns. He has since become a campaigner for press reform and commentator on media issues for TV, radio and in print. He also gives frequent lectures and talks about his experiences as a red-top hack, and is working on a number of writing projects.

Ben Erlam is Political Correspondent for ITV Yorkshire, responsible for covering all the big political stories affecting the region. A former student at Leeds Trinity, he now works as a lobby correspondent based in Westminster, after starting his career freelancing for commercial radio stations. He graduated from Leeds Trinity with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Bimedia Journalism in 2005 before securing a place on the ITV News Group Bursary Scheme.

Dave Simpson has written about music for 22 years, initially at a variety of magazines including Melody Maker and i-D, and, since the 1990s for The Guardian newspaper. His book The Fallen – Life In And Out Of Britain’s Most Insane Band tracked down over 50 former members of The Fall with revealing and often hilarious results, and was a Times, Sunday Times and Observer music book of the year as well as being rated the fourth best ever book about music by Neon Filler website.

A panel discussion featuring successful Leeds Trinity graduates:

Richie Anderson
Richie (Leeds Trinity class of 2009) is better known as the voice of “Roving Richie” on BBC WM 95.6FM, and can be heard on the radio every weekend on the Saturday Football Programme from 2pm. Richie may be a proud West Bromwich Albion fan from the Midlands but loves returning to Leeds to visit his alma mater when he gets the chance.

James Fielden
James is a freelance sports journalist based in London and currently does Watch & Bet commentary for the Perform Group on worldwide football on all leagues and competitions, along with FA Cup commentary/reporting for ITV Sport. He writes for FC Business magazine and does multimedia work for ESPN. James has also contributed to Wardle’s agency, SkySports News and goal.com.

Sarah Gate
Leeds Trinity alumnus Sarah started work at The Asian Express shortly after graduating. Within a short space of time, she moved on to a PR officer job for a charity in Bradford and is now media executive at a local advertising agency. In her spare time, Sarah still compiles press releases for local charities and a theatre company (free of charge!) and writes book reviews for Leeds Guide.

Billy Painter
Leeds Trinity alumnus Billy covers rugby league and works for Sky.

Katie Taylor
Katie graduated from Leeds Trinity in 2010 pursuing a career in music journalism. She covered news for a radio station for a while, but later realised her love for dance music could be incorporated into a “real” job. After a stint as a marketing exec for an IT company, she moved to London. Katie is starting up a music promotion business and believes the future of journalism is about quality content finding a wider reach audience through social media