The editor of the Newham Recorder is celebrating 30 years with the Recorder series of newspapers.

Colin Granger, (48), joined the company in 1972 as a trainee reporter and has since worked his way up through the ranks before becoming editor three years ago.

Colin (pictured) said: “I started after I left school when I was 18. Tom Duncan recruited me and taught me everything I know and he still has a weekly column in the paper. I did two lots of two months’ training at Harlow and became a senior reporter.”

He went on to work as a chief reporter, news editor, reporter-sub, sub-editor, assistant editor, deputy editor and associate editor before taking on the role of editor.

Colin has also been chief reporter and news editor of the Barking and Dagenham Advertiser and spent a period on the Ilford Recorder.

He said: “The way we work is a different situation now. My deputy Gary Bird and I still write news stories and have bylines in the paper and we are keen to maintain this.

“Obviously we have handed some of our contacts over to the reporters but people still ring us up. I haven’t quite got round to putting my contacts on the computer – they are still kept in a big book!”

Colin said the biggest change the paper had faced during his time there had been the introduction of new technology and the way the paper is put together.

“The office is lot quieter now, there’s no clattering of the typewriters,” he said.

“One thing that hasn’t changed is the news. This is still the most important thing and we try to be fair and square to everybody, which is what every journalist wants.

“The circulation in the heyday of the 70s was around 28-29,000, now it is about 23-24,000. It fluctuates, but there has been a shift in the population of the traditional readers.

“Newham is one of the most deprived areas in the country. There are massive developments in the docklands and big areas of prosperity but also pockets of poverty.

“We have a good partnership with Newham Council and we have been doing some good things together to try and improve the environment.”

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