Interview: Pugwash News, University of Portsmouth

Ben Fishwick, editor of Portsmouth’s Pugwash News, tells us about life at the dashboard of a busy student paper and website….

Give us a potted history of Pugwash
Pugwash News was founded in 2007 academic year by the sabbatical officer responsible for media at the time, Alex Harries, and a student volunteer, Jacob Leverett. The newspaper gets its name from our sister publication, Pugwash magazine. For those wondering, the name refers to Portsmouth University guild of writers and student hacks, rather than any popular 90s cartoon.

Starting off as a 12 page black and white publication in its first year, the paper went to colour and sixteen pages in 2008 and remained so until the 2010 academic year. This year the paper has gone from 16 to 24 pages and seen the launch of a fully functional website on pugwashnews.com.

Other events led to issue 25 being distributed without a front page after an article about university renumeration was pulled, rather unfortunately, after it had gone to print.

Past members have gone on to PR roles, reporters on various local newspapers, specialist journalism (think Crufts) as well as moving on to roles at the NUS and staff positions at the students’ union here.

Who’s involved in the site?
This year the editorial team has almost doubled to twelve editors, and the number of contributors has been consistently high. The newspaper now has dedicated positions for deputy editor, pictures editor, copy editor and marketing manager. Along with the new ‘Downtime’ section, the team has expanded and will hopefully continue to do so.

Currently our main problem is our online presence. The current picture editor, Dan Chesterton, put the site together and launched it, but keeping it up to date and maintained is a big job, one that we currently don’t have anyone doing!

What are the big stories at Portsmouth now?

One of the biggest issue in Portsmouth is the decision by the local council to restrict houses of multiple occupancy, meaning that as a densely populated city more students who live in these types of houses will be forced to move further north in the city. This would mean that a lot of students may have to live much further away from university buildings, it being a city campus. On a much more positive note, a student here has been awarded the title of Poet Laureate of the city, Keli Anne B was awarded it earlier in the month and is going to perform at a number of events across the city.

What are your aspirations for Pugwash?
Hopefully Pugwash News will become something that all students on campus will recognise and we will increase not only our readership but also our reputation within the university. The team want to make the newspaper the place Portsmouth students turn to first to find out what’s going on here. For example, if they heard that funding had been cut to the university library or the council were banning students from living in certain areas of Portsmouth, they would turn to us first because they know we will tell them everything and exactly how it will effect them. It wouldn’t be a case of asking around, or turning to the university website because all students on campus would know that we will be able to tell them exactly what’s going on (whether that be online or in the latest issue). They will know that Pugwash News takes great pride in being able to transmit the voice and concerns of the students by looking out for upcoming news that they need to know.

Most importantly, the team want the newspaper to remain as a independent as possible from the students’ union and university, giving all students a voice on campus, free from any influence.

What media do you and colleagues enjoy reading/watching/listening to?
Most people on the team read a variety of papers, including the i, the Times and (of course) the Guardian. In terms of online, the BBC news website is always great but with revolutions in the Middle East, Al Jazeera has become quite watched. Also, classics like More magazine, Radio 1, and the 60 second news updates on BBC 3. More locally, there are a lot of people on Twitter in Portsmouth, which helps when researching stories.

How healthy is student media right now in your opinion?
Even though we’ve had an excellent year, with increased editorial independence from the sabbatical officers and staff members at the union, things could be better. The team put their life and soul into Pugwash News and our circulation is improving, but there are still so many students on campus that don’t really know what Pugwash News is. The opportunities we are offered at Portsmouth are brilliant, between ourselves, Pure FM, Pugwash magazine, and the TV station we have all media possibilities covered. I think it’s just a case of getting them more well know so we become engaged with so many more students on campus.

Take a read of Pugwash News