“Read your rivals’ papers first” – good advice that reporter Maggie Gibson learnt at an early age and which has seen her produce a front page exclusive picked up by the national press, radio and televison.

At the morning news conference on press day for the weekly Cambs Times, Maggie had, as always, scoured the area’s rival publications for hidden gems.

And tucked inside a ‘sit vac’ section was an advert from a school in March, Cambs, looking for a new member of staff to teach pupils the social aspects of lunchtime eating – including the correct way to use a knife and fork!

Maggie phoned the school about the £9.30-an-hour job, obtained an interview with the head (not for the job!), and duly wrote a front page splash about one school’s efforts to encourage pupils to brush up on their table manners.

The story was filed to the nationals through Archant’s Red Williams, making a page lead for the Daily Mail and mentions in many other national and regional papers. The story was even featured on the ‘what the papers’ say spot on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

By coincidence her younger daughter, Charlotte, (17), provided the Cambs Times sister paper, the Wisbech Standard, with its front page exclusive after picking up a leaflet advertising a ‘boot camp’ operation for unruly teenagers from the Fens.

News editor John Elworthy said: ” Maggie was naturally delighted to have both front page scoops- and we were all delighted for her. You really can’t put a price on a reporter’s ability to sniff out a good exclusive.”

Maggie, whose husband Cliff is a magazine executive for EMAP, was able to keep both exclusives away from her oldest daughter Hannah… a journalist with a Home Counties news agency.