What does your role as Managing Editor across The Western Weekender and Parra News involve on a day-to-day basis?
I manage all of our print and digital content across both publications. This ranges from liaising with journalists about the stories they’re covering, managing the editorial layout and production, physically editing pages, and writing myself.

What has been the most memorable story you've come across during your time at the publications?
From a news perspective, it would be the COVID-19 lockdowns that impacted both of our readership areas significantly. We opted to provide extensive and exhaustive coverage of the pandemic, and while we're exceptionally proud of our coverage, it was a difficult period given conflicting opinions, tolerances, and thoughts on both the virus and lockdown.

A personal highlight is our coverage of the 2021 NRL Grand Final - we’re very rugby league-focused in our Penrith publication, and it was tremendous to be able to cover the game and Penrith’s first Premiership in 18 years.

In terms of coverage, is there are difference between what's chosen to be published on The Western Weekender and Parra News' website and what goes into print?
While many stories run on both platforms, we have exclusives that only run in print, or only in digital. Most of this is time-based - a big story four days before we go to print may work for digital, but is out-of-date by the time we would run it in print. Print exclusives are often more community-focused stories.

Who is part of the editorial team behind each of the papers?
We have three or four full-time journalists and two part-time photographers on staff, as well as expert columnists who provide content on a weekly basis.

What advice would you give to PRs hoping to have their pitches get noticed?
Don’t just pitch - send print-ready assets like high-res photos, stories with quotes, etc. Often last minute stories are needed and these can help. You get the best of both worlds as you might pick up coverage from last-minute requirements, but if journalists want to cover it more in-depth they’ll still come back with interview requests, photo requests, etc.