A former ad manager who took the plunge to follow his dream of becoming a journalist has been appointed news editor at the Evening Star, Ipswich.

Colin Adwent, (40), has worked for the East Anglian division of Archant since 1979 when he joined the advertising team at the then East Anglian Daily Times Company Ltd.

For the next 17 years, Colin (right) worked his way up the advertising ranks, working as a rep, admin manager and advertising systems manager.

However he always harboured an ambition to work in editorial, but had felt that his academic record would hold him back.

Colin said: “When I was in my early 30s I started to feel that if I wanted to do it I had to go for it. So I spoke to Terry Hunt, who was then the editor of the Ipswich Star.

“About a year later a vacancy came up. Terry had moved on to the East Anglian Daily Times, but the new editor, Nigel Pickover, gave me a chance.”

In 1998 Colin went for training at the Editorial Training Centre in Hastings and joined the Evening Star as a trainee reporter.

In August 1998 he was given the “wonderful opportunity” to become crime reporter, and in May 2000 he was promoted to deputy news editor.

In this role he worked with news editor Russell Cooke, who himself was a former compositor who retrained as a journalist, and is now editor of the Lowestoft Journal.

Colin said: “Russell showed that it could be done. You have to try your best and make the best of the chances you’ve got. It is inspiring to see Russell achieve what he has and I learnt a lot from him.”

But despite his obvious admiration for Russell, Colin doesn’t necessarily want to follow in his footsteps and is enjoying his new role.

He said: “I think I’ve got my hands full for the time being, my priority is to do this job well. I haven’t got any mindset on a career plan.

“Everything has happened quicker than I expected, the right things have happened at the right time.

“I’ve had a lot of support from everybody. You need to have a belief in yourself, but you can also gain confidence from others.

“I can’t imagine getting the fulfilment I get from journalism from any other career.”

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