The all-new singing and dancing Gavin Drake blog

Welcome to my new blog!  Actually, it is my old blog, but without the old content.

Having moved back into news journalism it is no longer appropriate to maintain a blog in which I espouse my opinions, thoughts and prejudices.  Not least, because some of my clients don’t like their freelance (or in house) journalists doing that.  Some news organisations go as far as to say its reporters can’t do that.  And so I won’t.

To some extent, it goes back to one of the lessons I was taught by my very first editor: “Opinions are like backsides, everybody has one.”

That doesn’t mean I no longer have opinions, thoughts and prejudices.  Of course I have.  Every journalist has – because every journalist is a real living human being.  But it does mean that I now have to keep these to myself and let the facts tell the story – without my prejudices getting in the way.

My blog isn’t dead, though.  It just has a different purpose and identity.

I will be posting summaries with links to those news organisations which have had the good sense to use and pay me for my work.  I’ll be posting some articles here exclusively.  And I’ll be writing about some of my more interesting exploits in this glamorous world of news media.

And all the time I’ll be trying to ensure I stay on the right side of my clients’ policies on social media, opinions and the like.

I hope this doesn’t mean that this becomes a boring blog.  It will just be a different blog.

Thank you for sticking with me thus far – please stay with me in the journey ahead.