Journalist and podcaster
David Haze is a multiple world record holder for paddleboarding, but that all came after a descent into crime and drugs, which also saw him on the run from police. While on the run his mental health crashed as he faced up to the situation he had gotten into - he even tried to take … Continue reading David Haze: Crime, prison & paddleboarding
Middle-distance runner Andy McAslan was diagnosed with Stage Four Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and was undergoing immuno-chemotherapy in 2021. Despite having symptoms for around six months it’s highly likely that he could have had the disease for around three to four years prior. His illness is also incurable. Even if remission is achieved the illness will still … Continue reading Andy McAslan’s cancer battle
Running the HertsLive site through the pandemic was one of the toughest assignments of my journalism career. When taking over the day-to-day running of the site - ahead of its launch in March 2020 - it was doing around 1.4million page views a month. In January 2021 we hit a new record with 7.2million page … Continue reading HertsLive – from 1.4m to 7.2m page views
Launching the new HertsLive site in the midst of a global pandemic is not something I envisaged. Having taken the job of Digital Lead just three weeks before launch day, I knew there would be significant challenges, but this was something else. What followed was the hardest – yet most rewarding – three months in … Continue reading Three months of HertsLive – and the pandemic goes on
Throughout my time working for EssexLive we were all well aware of the planning that was going into launching one of Reach PLC's brand new websites - HertsLive. At the end of February 2020 I was delighted to be appointed as Digital Content Lead for the new website. It's a position I never expected to … Continue reading Launching the new HertsLive website during the covid crisis
Sunday, October 6, 2019 turned out to be one of the most eventful days in the Essex Live newsroom. It was my third weekend leading as content editor with the team consisting of just myself and one reporter. I had heard something big was happening in Colchester, a quick search through social media also found … Continue reading Leading the coverage for a triple murder investigation in Colchester
This feature and accompanying podcast easily became one of my finest pieces of work. It was highly commended in the NCTJ Awards for Excellence 2018, in the Multimedia Story of the Year Category, and Hold the Front Page asked me to write a guest blog on why I decided to do it. The online feature … Continue reading Spending 24 hours living homeless with two rough sleepers
Gang violence and knife crime is one of the dominant themes on the news agenda and in Essex it’s no different. The county neighbours London and like many areas of the country faces issues with drugs and county lines gangs. At Essex Live we decided to lift a lid on the gang scene and explore … Continue reading The Essex Gang Scene Uncovered
On April 24, 2018 I went to Chelmsford Crown Court to live blog the prosecution opening of the Kevin Malthouse murder trial. The 24-year-old was a father of one and a former non-league footballer who had died after sustaining fatal stab wounds to the chest in a street fight in Grays. The altercation had happened … Continue reading Covering the trial of two men accused of murdering a non-league footballer
During my time as a print reporter in the Essex Live newsroom, specifically the reporter for the Brentwood Gazette, one of the things that had attracted significant attention from our audience was the arrival of a new Halloween attraction. What I once knew to be a former leisure centre was set to be transformed into … Continue reading The night I took on Brentwood’s House of Horror
When The Prodigy’s Keith Flint died we knew Essex Live and the Essex Chronicle had a big part play. And when it came to his funeral, with the band inviting fans from all over to come to Braintree and ‘raise the roof’ in memory of the musician, it was no different. Our coverage of Keith … Continue reading Bringing Keith Flint’s funeral to fans across the world
Joe Stratton had first come onto the radar of the Essex Chronicle when he was in court on drugs charges several years ago. The judge in that court case had spared him a jail sentence in part due to a passionate plea from his father, Steve, who had been trying to help his son deal … Continue reading Telling the story of a grieving father who found his son dead
Alasdair Hooper 