Firstly, let me thank every single one of you that took time out of your day to congratulate me on the new job, either online or in person. It’s very heartwarming and gives me the feeling that I’m doing the right thing and makes me excited for the future.

Let’s talk about a very important but often overlooked aspect of reporting news in 2018. 

Sourcing news.

Once upon a time, a journalist came across stories either from sources, community tip offs or they received a phone call from the police. I’m sure there were others but you can probably work out that in a pre-internet world, it was very different.

A lot of you know me from my time on the number of Mudgee region community Facebook pages.

Early on, I saw these pages as a place with lots of potential. Not just for networking and chit chat, but for gathering genuine news leads from members of the community willing to speak out.

There are so many places to get information now. A normal day could involve me gathering news from some of these following places:

It can be confusing to those on the outside as to what is the best way to contact the Mudgee Guardian if they have something to tell us.

The answer is honestly, whatever is best for you.

I’m making sure that we pay attention to the different corners of the internet and the community that people come to to share their thoughts, complaints, ideas and tips.

A recent story we did on young Connor Mayson building his own Dalek came about literally because I was driving around that part of town and saw that there was a big Dalek in someone’s yard.

Sometimes people are confused as to why we are so interested in something they did and wonder why we picked them.

These are always the stories that are the most popular.

So if you have absolutely anything to share, no matter how quirky or weird, we’d always love to hear it.