I once had the privilege to work with a brilliant journalist at the busy Lancashire Constabulary press office.

Caroline Emberton was perhaps the best press officer the force never had; the Hampshire lass had been in post for a few years before I joined her and Peter Lovett-Horn back in November 1992 after an eight year stint at the GMP PR office where I'd edited the force magazine 'Brief'.

They were very different times back then in PR - not only did the Lancashire force have a lot more officers - this was a time before social media and its associated ills and also when you could actually have fun in the office with no one taking offence; Caroline, of Sri Lankan heritage, once cheekily suggested I call her an 'insulting' name, that she would sue me and we share the proceeds...

She's now retired to N. Wales but her spirit pervaded the QLocal office aka the living room table when the latest Champ. was delivered at teatime.

One standing joke was how quickly she could read the local papers; she once boasted reading the LEP (now the Lancashire Post) in just seven seconds, and after flicking through this week's Champion, I knew exactly why.

"I'm bored with it now," was one of her favourite sayings - not that working with Caroline was ever boring; she didn't suffer fools gladly but would always side with her PR and media colleagues and had a brilliant relationship with most senior officers, many fearing her candid manner when asking for advice on dealing with the national and local press.

Anyway, back to this week's Champ - what a disappointment!

A lead story from Skem, quite a few dated press releases and what looks like the loss of quietly spoken Geordie reporter Kenny Parker who used to cover the Ormskirk beat; I read it in all of two minutes - hence the memories of Caroline.

The Champ has a clearly defined audience of older people but with more and more of them getting connected you wonder if the days of a weekly printed paper are numbered. It was also interesting to note the huge drop in its letterbox circulation, down by a good few thousand.

Originally Posted by rogerblaxall

I once had the privilege to work with a brilliant journalist at the busy Lancashire Constabulary press office.

Caroline Emberton was perhaps the best press officer the force never had; the Hampshire lass had been in post for a few years before I joined her and Peter Lovett-Horn back in November 1992 after an eight year stint at the GMP PR office where I'd edited the force magazine 'Brief'.



They were very different times back then in PR - not only did the Lancashire force have a lot more officers - this was a time before social media and its associated ills and also when you could actually have fun in the office with no one taking offence; Caroline, of Sri Lankan heritage, once cheekily suggested I call her an 'insulting' name, that she would sue me and we share the proceeds...

She's now retired to N. Wales but her spirit pervaded the QLocal office aka the living room table when the latest Champ. was delivered at teatime.

One standing joke was how quickly she could read the local papers; she once boasted reading the LEP (now the Lancashire Post) in just seven seconds, and after flicking through this week's Champion, I knew exactly why.

"I'm bored with it now," was one of her favourite sayings - not that working with Caroline was ever boring; she didn't suffer fools gladly but would always side with her PR and media colleagues and had a brilliant relationship with most senior officers, many fearing her candid manner when asking for advice on dealing with the national and local press.

Anyway, back to this week's Champ - what a disappointment!

A lead story from Skem, quite a few dated press releases and what looks like the loss of quietly spoken Geordie reporter Kenny Parker who used to cover the Ormskirk beat; I read it in all of two minutes - hence the memories of Caroline.

The Champ has a clearly defined audience of older people but with more and more of them getting connected you wonder if the days of a weekly printed paper are numbered. It was also interesting to note the huge drop in its letterbox circulation, down by a good few thousand.

So what's your point?
At least The Champion has uses after it's been read
Unlike some of the dross that appears on this feed