On Wednesday 24 July, 29-year old Toby Winson, a builder from Kent, was announced as the winner of Media Trust's Breaking into News competition run in partnership with ITV News.
The competition gives 10 budding journalists from across the UK the chance to be mentored by an ITV News journalist to create their own news report. We spoke to Toby to find out how it feels to be crowned our 2019 winner.
Before the competition started, I was and still am a builder and blogger. I blog about my recovery from alcoholism- I am three years sober.
I started writing a blog seven months ago. I started the blog two years after my recovery as before then I wasn’t mentally prepared for it. It takes a couple of years for your emotions to sink again after years of alcohol abuse.
The blog had a big response, I was in the local papers and it was helping people, which is what I wanted it to do. When my mum read my blog she realised I had a knack for writing. She saw the competition on TV and encouraged me to apply, so I did, and here I am.
I was a bit speechless when they said i'd won because someone pointed out to me that my dad was crying at the back of the room, which ultimately set me off a bit.
Absolutely unreal! I was a bit speechless when they said i’d won because someone pointed out to me that my dad was crying at the back of the room, which ultimately set me off a bit. I saw everyone’s reports and they were insanely good. I don’t know how they picked me but I can’t thank Media Trust and ITV enough. If you are thinking about applying, 100% do it!
Probably seeing the 200 hundred words I had written down as my idea for a news report turn into a proper TV worthy news story which was aired. The response it had was just unbelievable.
Eye opening, extremely rewarding and challenging. Entering was the best thing I’ve ever done.
Who is to say that working class men don’t deserve has much of a say than every other class?
Never!
I’m going to do everything I can to make this my full-time job as this is what I want to do now. I’m getting great advice from my mentor, Chloe Oliver (a journalist at ITV Meridian) and everyone else at Meridian. I’d maybe like to do a training scheme or internship! I’m going to explore every avenue and do whatever it takes.
Watch Toby's winning news story above.
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