"He said 'they don't like poetry here kid, half of them can't f****** read"

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Last week, MEN editor-in-chief Sarah Lester outlined some exciting upcoming changes for our readers. Speaking about the launch of our premium product, she said that when she first walked into the newsroom, she knew it was a “very special place.”

I couldn’t agree more, and not just because she’s the boss.

I joined the Manchester Evening News in 2015 after a ten-year stint at The Independent in London. I thought I knew all there was to know about journalism, until the MEN proved me wrong. The first thing I noticed was the paper’s intimate connection with its readers. That’s something you rarely find. Here, people are deeply engaged, sometimes supportive, sometimes critical, but always providing insight into what we’re doing right or what we might do differently.

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