One of only two defence correspondents in the regional press is leaving his job to start work at a military newspaper.
Richard Hargreaves has written for The News in Portsmouth for more than five-and-a-half years but joins Navy News at the end of September.

During the Iraq war, Richard spent five weeks on board HMS Ark Royal in the Gulf reporting for The News. It was the sixth time he had travelled abroad for the paper.

"It was a mixture of sheer boredom and moments of real activity," he said.

"I was struck by how tedious Naval life could be but also by how professional the crew were."

Despite this, Richard describes his position as defence correspondent as "the best job in journalism".

He said: "Any journalist looks to cover a big story like a murder, government scandal or war. For me, war is the most interesting.

"I owe The News a hell of a lot and part of me doesn't want to leave but I think if I stay any longer I would never go. Whoever gets the job of replacing me will thoroughly enjoy it.

"The job I do here is almost identical to the one I'll do at Navy News, the only difference being there will be more subbing involved - and Navy News won't be critical of the Navy."

During his time in the defence role Richard has travelled to the Gulf four times for The News and has also been to the Ukraine and Kosovo.

He said: "I've been able to drive tanks in Kosovo and fire rocket-propelled missiles.

"You can be a crime reporter or education reporter anywhere but you can only cover defence in two or three places. Being in Portsmouth is better than being on the nationals because you get to meet the ordinary guys and be in the middle of things."

Richard said that when he was in Iraq he came half a mile away from being shelled. But the scariest moment was a chemical scare on the ship.

He said: "It was the morning after we arrived in Um Qasr and the alarms on the ship sounded - it was the chemical alarm.

"Everyone was putting on gas masks but it turned out that someone had just burnt their toast!"