Express move for lobby journo
Jon Walker - interviewing former Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Long-standing parliamentary lobby journalist Jon Walker, who has served a group of Midland regional titles for more than 20 years, is leaving to become deputy political editor of the Sunday Express.
Jon, pictured here interviewing former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, had been providing political coverage for the Birmingham Mail and its sister titles in the Midlands. At times his role also encompassed other Reach plc-owned titles including Newcastle’s Chronicle and Journal, while he recently launched politlcal newsletter the Midlands Message.
He revealed his forthcoming departure in a first-person piece in the Mail in which he also lamented the decline in the number of regional lobby correspondents.
When Jon first joined the lobby there were seven correspondents serving regional morning newspapers in England and around ten serving regional evenings. Only three now remain – Jon, his Reach plc colleague Dan Donoghue who covers the group’s Northern dailies, and Yorkshire Post correspondent Caitlin Doherty.
“It’s easy to imagine that readers aren’t interested in politics. That’s certainly a view I’ve come across in the local and regional news industry. But it’s wrong. Because a lot of the things people are most concerned about are political issues,” wrote Jon.
“Can you see a GP when you need one? Can you afford to pay your gas bill? Why are drug dealers operating openly in the high street, and why can’t the police do something about it?
“Whether actively supporting a campaign by an MP or simply giving them publicity, local news organisations can work with local politicians to make things happen. Despite this, it’s sometimes hard to convince decision-makers in the news industry that politics matters. I’m not talking about my colleagues here on the Post & Mail and BirminghamLive (the website affiliated with the papers). After all, they still employ me.
“But there used to be a number of regional correspondents working at Westminster. Few are left. The work we do is useful. We attend, for example, regular briefings with the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, where we have been able to ask about issues such as local Covid lockdowns, the Levelling Up White Paper and the Government’s plans for new rail lines in the Midlands and the North.
