ABI SIMPSON
Industry experience:
NEWS EDITOR - EAST OF ENGLAND
BAUER MEDIA: AUGUST 2020 - PRESENT
Abi stayed on as a Senior Broadcast Journalist in the East of England following a takeover of Celador Radio by Bauer Media. In September 2021 she was promoted to the region's News Editor. As well as overseeing news output for the region and managing the local news teams, she also keeps Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex up to date throughout breakfast. You can also sometimes catch her on Bauer's national network bulletins across the UK, she has worked on brands including: Hits Radio, Greatest Hits Radio, Magic, Absolute, Scala, Jazz FM, Kerrang! Radio and Planet Rock.
SENIOR BROADCAST JOURNALIST
CELADOR RADIO: SEPTEMBER 2017 - AUGUST 2020
Abi started as a Broadcast Journalist at Celador before being promoted to a Senior Broadcast Journalist for the Central/East team which meant she was responsible for overseeing the news team and output for 11 stations: North Norfolk Radio, Radio Norwich, The Beach, Town 102, Dream 100, The Breeze (East Hampshire, Reading, Newbury, Andover, Basingstoke), and Fire Radio. Prior to her promotion to the East office, Abi worked for almost two years as Broadcast Journalist in the South. There she worked on the news output for a range of brands on the South Coast including The Breeze, Sam FM and Fire Radio.
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
ANGLIAN RADIO: JUNE 2017 - SEPTEMBER 2017
Abi worked as a freelance journalist at Anglian Radio which provides content to five stations: Radio Norwich, North Norfolk Radio, The Beach, Town 102, and Dream 100. Her role required her: to read bulletins for air, organise and conduct interviews, write copy for air and for online, edit audio and deal with enquiries.
FREELANCE NEWSREADER
WESSEX FM: FEBRUARY 2016 - JULY 2016
Abi spent some time during her second year at university working as a freelance newsreader for Wessex FM: finding and writing stories, completing and editing interviews, and reading the news for air.
WORK EXPERIENCE
EASTERN DAILY PRESS AND NORWICH EVENING NEWS: APRIL 2016 AND JULY 2014
Abi spent two weeks at her local paper. Her visit prior to university confirmed her passion for journalism, and during her second she was able to put the skills learnt on her course to the test. She worked with the news teams: writing copy, conducting interviews, sitting in on meetings and shadowing other journalists. She had work published in print and online during both visits.
WORK EXPERIENCE
BOURNEMOUTH DAILY ECHO: MARCH 2016
Abi spent a week at the local paper in Bournemouth, working with the news team, writing copy from press releases, finding stories, going out with journalists and photographers, and conducting interviews. During her time there she attended a Royal visit to the hospital, an attempted rape scene, and a school sports day, all of which she helped write copy for.
WORK EXPERIENCE
JUST REGIONAL: DECEMBER 2015
Abi spent a week at a hyper-local magazine in Norfolk. The small team publishes 10 ultra-local magazines on a monthly basis. While there, she: searched for stories, pitched ideas using her local knowledge, found images, wrote copy, uploaded stories to the website, and suggested ways they could improve their social media presence as this didn't appear to be something they were taking full advantage of.
WORK EXPERIENCE
ITV ANGLIA: JULY 2014
Abi spent a week at ITV Anglia, before university, to find out how television worked and to see whether this was definitely something she wanted to study. She went out with journalists to help film and perform interviews, shadowed the editors, spent time being shown around the studio, and helped with basic editing. She also helped find stories and organise interviews either via email or by phone.
WORK EXPERIENCE
HEART NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK: JULY 2013
Abi did one weeks work experience at Heart Radio Norfolk and Suffolk to help her choose which degree she wanted to do. Whilst at the station she helped out on the news desk: finding stories, writing scripts and helping to put content online. During her time there she managed to get several stories published online, and had a few of her scripts read out as part of various bulletins.
Qualifications and other achievements:
Bournemouth University
BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism - First Class Honours
National Council for the Training of Journalists
Public Affairs - B
Court Reporting - C
Shorthand 60wpm - Pass
Production - C
Essential Media Law - C
Shorthand 80wpm - Pass
Essential Journalism Ethics - B
NCTJ Diploma - Pass
Other
Full clean UK driving licence
BJTC Accredited Journalist