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Journalist’s videos portray 36 years of newsroom life

A journalist who worked for a weekly newspaper series for 36 years has uploaded a collection of videos to YouTube from his time there.

Stephen Clow worked for the Essex Chronicle Series in a number of roles from 1976 until taking voluntary redundancy last October and he has now set up his own news agency providing court coverage.

Since leaving, he has uploaded a series of 20 videos to YouTube which are made up of photographs and films of staff he took between 1976 and 2012, when the paper was based at its former headquarters at Westway in Chelmsford.

Stephen’s videos are grouped together under the title The Old Chron and he believes they will be of interest to staff from editorial, advertising, pre press and those who ran the now-defunct printing press.

One of the photos which appears on YouTube.

He said: “I believe I am the only YouTube contributor to have recorded the past times of a local newpaper in such depth.

“There are leaving presentations and award ceremonies and just spontaneous video coverage of newsroom, composing room and most of the departments, when papers were papers.

“Little did I know that I was recording the golden years of local newspapers that with the advent of the internet would become as outdated as a town crier proclaiming the news on the street corner!”

He has also had contributions from other former staff to the YouTube collection.

Stephen held a number of roles in the Essex Chronicle Series including editor and reporter and he worked latterly as a photojournalist covering courts and writing a nostalgia spread.

His new freelance agency is called Court Redhanded News and covers courts across Essex as well as general news stories.

The Essex Chronicle left its home of 48 years last summer to move to new smaller premises in Chelmsford.

The videos can be viewed here.