Auf Wiedersehen, pets!

It feels like only yesterday that South West Durham News (SWDN) was welcoming four young German media students, who chose to join us as volunteer community journalists for three months, writes SWDN managing editor, Archie MacKay.

Now they are gone, and it feels like a huge loss to our newsroom, but also to the community.

Anton, Mona, Carla and Henri were with us for three months, from April until the beginning of July, and in that time, they made a tremendous impact.

For the first time in our more than 25-year history serving the communities of South West Durham, we suddenly, almost accidentally, but equally fortunately, had access to the resources we have always claimed would help us do the job even better.

The four students – or more accurately Anton – initially contacted Sarah Hartley of The Northern Eco, who has partnered with SWDN for the past year or so on several projects, to enquire about volunteering with her publication for three months.

Sarah contacted our newsroom, as just one student volunteering full time might prove more than she could accommodate.

Having joined Sarah in conversation with Anton, we were both so impressed we felt we simply had to welcome him into the fold.

It was then that Anton revealed he had some friends who were also interested.

But having spoken to them all, and having four SWDN publications, plus Sarah’s Northern Eco and its often longer form, investigative stories, we were persuaded to ‘take a chance’, as the song says.

So much for taking a chance. Within days it was clear we had hit the jackpot.

Our four volunteers were not only professional, dedicated, enthusiastic, and willing to take on any challenge, they were personable, friendly, and skilled.

Readers will have noticed their ‘volunteer community reporter’ byline across our papers in recent months, and we hope most will agree that the quality of reporting, the subject matters covered, the community stories told, have been of exceptional quality and interest.

We have also had the opportunity of seeing activity on our video platforms, particularly Instagram and Youtube, two platforms we are very keen to develop.

All the while, as the group worked diligently to produce content, we have all become friends as well as colleagues, and their infectious presence in the SWDN newsroom will be sorely missed.

In September this year, we launch a lottery-funded six-week long Community Reporter Workshop where Sarah and SWDN will deliver a free programme of journalism skills to anyone interested in helping us to tell the important stories in your community.

The course will include a general introduction to the trade, how to structure your writing, interview techniques, and the different types of storytelling in a digital age.

If you are interested, click here to register.

In the meantime, to our wonderful volunteers from Magdeburg: Anton, Mona, Carla and Henri, danke! We miss you already and we will never forget your contribution to our communities. You are the trailblazers for what we want to do next.

Auf wiedersehen, pets!

Keep an eye out for a final report from our volunteers on their experience of visiting the UK and the North East, and you can check out more of their work here.