My work experience at the Mid-Devon Advertiser series
Located in Newton Abbot, the Mid-Devon Advertiser series is a publisher producing 7 newspapers for several areas of Devonshire. It informs the people about everything local and they can also place their own advertisements in it. My tasks were greeting customers and helping them to choose the right size and style for their advert. They could place a free advert if what they wanted to sell was worth less than £1000, or pay per column and cm. Many of them also wanted to place anniversary messages, death notices and birthday wishes. They could choose from a large range of different frames and for birthday wishes could also insert an embarrassing old picture of the birthday boy/girl.
I also had to answer the phone and record messages or put someone through to a colleague. Many people placed an advert over the phone and some wanted pictures they'd seen in one of the newspapers, for example if it was their grandchild in the picture or because they simply liked it. Then I would log on to a website where we could order professionally printed photos, choose the right size and quality and have it sent to the customer.
Because the Mid-Devon Advertiser will have their 150th anniversary in 2013, they wanted to see who put advertisements in the paper 100 years ago. So I went through all the old newspapers from 1963 to 1983 and wrote down all the companies which had placed adverts throughout the century.
I rewrote some articles about stage plays at the local theatre, such as The Sound of Music and 1974. Another time I had to think of and write down some questions for an interview with an American rock star that was going to come to England. The editor who gave me these tasks told me about all the celebrities she's had interviewed, some of them really famous, like for example Take That, which is especially cool because I love Robbie Williams. She is in charge of the events and kids section in the newspaper and gets to meet a lot of interesting people.
Altogether I really liked my work placement; everyone was very nice and interested in me and my home country. I got to do some great tasks and got to meet a lot of different people. If you ever get the chance to do a work placement abroad you should jump at it because it’s fun to get to know a different culture and it gives you a lot more confidence and independence.
