Llanelli Star centenary
Just finished scribbling something re the Llanelli Star's Centenary, coming up this month.
There’s a character in the classic Orson Welles movie, Citizen Kane, who declares, “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper!”
Well, take it from me, it was fun running a newspaper.
So much fun, in fact, that I ended up doing two stints in the editor’s chair at the Llanelli Star.
It was an honour and a privilege to do the job – on both occasions.
Believe it or not, my first spell in the editor’s chair actually started on April 1, 1989 –April Fool’s Day. And my second spell started on April Fool’s Day 2006.
Over the years, various councillors and chief executives may have got the impression that the joke was on them.
Not everyone saw the funny side of an editor who enjoyed tilting at a few windmills and running a column called Lloyd At Large.
Along with the fun came the serious business of running a newspaper which can proudly hold its head up high as one of the finest and most progressive weeklies in Wales.
Looking back, it’s not the exclusives that stay in the memory. It’s the people.
It was a privilege to work alongside some excellent journalists and to help train young reporters.
Max Boyce has his fly-half factory. The Star had a conveyor belt of excellent trainee journalists who all went on to bigger and better things.
Cathryn Ings, is now the editor of the Carmarthen Journal, Catherine Evan Williams is a reporter for ITV Wales, Tony O’Shaughnessy is a senior BBC producer, Nick Parry is a BBC journalist of note, my namesake Robert Lloyd (christened Jonathan during his time at the Star) is an excellent sports reporter on the South Wales Evening Post, Jonathan Roberts is a seasoned journalist with ‘the enemy’ at Media Wales in Cardiff, Andrew Mathias went to handle media matters for cabinet ministers such as Peter Hain and Judith ‘Jude’ Rogers has a job I would die for, writing on the world of music (and she even got to be a Mercury Music Prize judge last year!).
Just a few names from a glorious roll-call of journalists who started their careers at the Star.
Along the way, we did great things. We became the first newspaper in Wales to grasp new technology by the horns – and we even moved house, from Station Road to Cowell Street.
Older colleagues may recall that the internal doors at Station Road were no longer any use, anyway – years of abuse from an editor prone to tantrums usually left them hanging by their hinges!
A centenary usually means that a door closes on a particular chapter in history. In the Star’s case, I hope it is a door opening on a new and even more successful chapter under the stewardship of Bede MacGowan.
I just hope he has just as much fun with the job as I did!
There’s a character in the classic Orson Welles movie, Citizen Kane, who declares, “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper!”
Well, take it from me, it was fun running a newspaper.
So much fun, in fact, that I ended up doing two stints in the editor’s chair at the Llanelli Star.
It was an honour and a privilege to do the job – on both occasions.
Believe it or not, my first spell in the editor’s chair actually started on April 1, 1989 –April Fool’s Day. And my second spell started on April Fool’s Day 2006.
Over the years, various councillors and chief executives may have got the impression that the joke was on them.
Not everyone saw the funny side of an editor who enjoyed tilting at a few windmills and running a column called Lloyd At Large.
Along with the fun came the serious business of running a newspaper which can proudly hold its head up high as one of the finest and most progressive weeklies in Wales.
Looking back, it’s not the exclusives that stay in the memory. It’s the people.
It was a privilege to work alongside some excellent journalists and to help train young reporters.
Max Boyce has his fly-half factory. The Star had a conveyor belt of excellent trainee journalists who all went on to bigger and better things.
Cathryn Ings, is now the editor of the Carmarthen Journal, Catherine Evan Williams is a reporter for ITV Wales, Tony O’Shaughnessy is a senior BBC producer, Nick Parry is a BBC journalist of note, my namesake Robert Lloyd (christened Jonathan during his time at the Star) is an excellent sports reporter on the South Wales Evening Post, Jonathan Roberts is a seasoned journalist with ‘the enemy’ at Media Wales in Cardiff, Andrew Mathias went to handle media matters for cabinet ministers such as Peter Hain and Judith ‘Jude’ Rogers has a job I would die for, writing on the world of music (and she even got to be a Mercury Music Prize judge last year!).
Just a few names from a glorious roll-call of journalists who started their careers at the Star.
Along the way, we did great things. We became the first newspaper in Wales to grasp new technology by the horns – and we even moved house, from Station Road to Cowell Street.
Older colleagues may recall that the internal doors at Station Road were no longer any use, anyway – years of abuse from an editor prone to tantrums usually left them hanging by their hinges!
A centenary usually means that a door closes on a particular chapter in history. In the Star’s case, I hope it is a door opening on a new and even more successful chapter under the stewardship of Bede MacGowan.
I just hope he has just as much fun with the job as I did!
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