Today’s guest is a fellow journalist, Sue Kinnear who is the voice of afternoon bulletins for BBC Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and also an experienced radio producer and presenter.
In her current role, she has to produce three minutes of news for her bulletins. This means she has to find, write and present bulletins every hour, between 2pm and 6pm – and it has to fit three minutes precisely.
Sue has years of experience in both radio and TV, and like me, she loves telling stories.
Most of us have no idea how incredibly hectic it can be gathering the information together for each day from the morning journalist, ready for the afternoon radio shows, plus being aware of breaking news. And remember this isn’t for just one station, but two! You’ll be fascinated to hear how down to the last minute this can be.
Also like me, Sue loves being engaged with local news. She has sole responsibility to make decisions about which stories go out in her bulletins. It is her job to keep everyone in touch with what’s happening nationally, but also for the local area – because listeners’ communities are important to them. She in turn loves the relationship that she can build with local listeners.
We talk about the importance of including where you are based when you send a story to a journalist. If someone sends a story to Sue and it doesn’t say Gloucestershire or Wiltshire at the top, it will get deleted because she has so many emails and having to work to such a tight schedule, she can’t waste time with stories which are irrelevant to the areas she covers.
Also, Sue underlines the importance of building a relationship with journalists – she recognises the names of people who have helped her with good stories previously, and so is more likely to use them again.
To contact Sue:
Email: Sue.kinnear@bbc.co.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SueKinnear
If you would like to contact me, you can visit my or join my free Facebook group here
