From PINF to the Bristol Cable: Farewell Jaldeep

Outgoing PINF Network Manager and cover star Jaldeep looks back on two years at PINF and in return, our Network shares the love!  

First up, Jaldeep reflects on his experiences at PINF before stepping into his new role: 

This time two years ago I was in Yambio in South Sudan training journalists for Voice of Hope Radio. A few days before, I’d been interviewed for a job with the Public Interest News Foundation. That evening, I’d just got back to my room at the Royal Castle Hotel and whacked on the AC full blast to cope with the 37°C heat. The phone rang. It was Jonathan Heawood. He offered me the position of Network Manager.  

The job was remote working from anywhere in the United Kingdom, so I settled on Bristol. My brother was moving there soon and having lived abroad for most of the last twenty years, I wanted to call the place where I lived, home. 

We agreed a start date of July 1st 2023 and so began an incredible journey - a deep dive into the local independent public interest news scene in the United Kingdom. It’s been a journey full of learning for me, both about the sector but also about skills which were completely new to me. 

One of the first tasks was to organise an Indie News Forum for 60 people from all around the country in October 2023. Conveniently for me, we settled on Bristol. It was my job as Network Manager to make it happen. We chose a venue at the Station in Bristol, where coincidentally the Bristol Cable is located – more on that later.  

When I worked in Papua New  Guinea, the one life motif was "expect the unexpected". The weekend of the Forum, Storm Babet rolled in creating havoc across the South and Midlands of England. People were taking 8 hours to make the journey from London to Bristol by train. One intrepid pair got as far as Swindon and then Uber-ed the rest. Bizarrely, delegates from Glasgow flew in over the storm and got to Bristol with ease. Many others had to turn back halfway.  

We were getting everyone’s travel updates via the Independent News Forum WhatsApp group, which I’d set up a few weeks before. We started with about 50 independent news providers in the group – we’ve now got 130. It’s been a joy to see the group take shape and form over the last two years. One thing about journalists is that they are never lost for words. From the General group alone that’s nearly a thousand pages of text, 300,000 words and two million characters (with spaces). 

With so much information, we wondered how we would make sense of it all. In particular, we wanted to give newcomers a chance to search back through previous threads, so we came up with the idea of creating a knowledge base with threads assembled like frequently asked questions. Every week, I’ve been doing a precis because (acronym alert) TMI and TLDR lead to FOMO. Every month, I’ve been uploading it all to the Sharepoint. 

Independent news providers work in isolation and while online contact helps overcome some of the feeling of flying solo, even better is to connect in person. It was therefore a real joy to meet up with the community at the second forum I organised in Glasgow – this time spread over two days and including a visit to the Greater Govanhill Community Newsroom and a social evening. That evening included a very warm send off for Hani, who - Doctor Who-like - transformed into the wonderful Beckie. 

As I leave now to take up a full-time position with the Bristol Cable as Operations Lead, there are a couple of other highlights I’d like to point out. PINF and Demos jointly worked on a study about disinformation and low traffic neighbourhoods or to give it its proper title “Driving Disinformation: Democratic deficits, disinformation and low traffic neighbourhoods – a portrait of policy failure”. Demos very kindly listed me and PINF’s Deputy Director, Joe Mitchell as researchers on the front cover.  

Speaking of front covers, I was surprised and delighted to be, in the words of my new colleagues at the Bristol Cable, the “cover girl” for PINF’s Local News Commission report on Regenerating Local News in the UK. That was nothing to do with me at all (shout out to Jonathan, Zoe and Beckie on that one). 

So, what will I miss most as I leave PINF to rejoin the journalism coalface at the Bristol Cable? Here’s a clue. It happens on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 11 o’clock. It’s the most exclusive podcast in the world. It’s the PINF Podcast. We take it in turns to co-host and we dream up one question related to work and one question about life and listen to the answers. That’s where we’ve learnt about each other the most and I’ll let you into a PINF secret – what’s talked about in the PINF Podcast stays in the PINF Podcast. But I will say this as I leave, the newest PINF recruit - administrator Wendy Collinson - asks the best questions! 

Now for the bit that this author's been dreading. I can confidently say that I speak for everyone in the PINF team when I say we will massively miss Jaldeep! Wendy may ask the best questions, but Jaldeep provides the most fascinating Podcast answers – hands down! He seems to have worked in every country, done every job and had the most unique experiences a person can have, and he’s clearly not slowing down yet. 

But you don’t just have to take it from me, we received a slew of goodbyes and farewells from indie news providers around the country, that I'm delighted to share:

“Jaldeep has been a real staple of PINF, working hard to bring the UK’s independent sector together. He has always been warm and welcoming, with an interesting tale to tell about many a subject. It’s lovely to know he won’t be going far - I wish him all the best at the Cable!” Darren Toogood, Island Echo 

“Congratulations on your new role, Jaldeep. I thoroughly enjoyed working with you on News for All. You are a great human being and an equally outstanding professional. All the very best with the next chapter in the book—I hope to read about your life one day. Much love, mate. I look forward to our paths crossing again in the future.” Gary Kelly 

“Thank you Jaldeep for being such a staunch supporter of independent news, hope you can help take the Bristol Cable to even greater heights!” Darryl Chamberlain, Greenwich Wire  

“We're hugely grateful for all Jaldeep's hard work getting the PINF network off the ground and for running Indie News Forum. Both have been invaluable resources. Good luck, Jaldeep! Looking forward to seeing what you do in the co-op space.” Rhys Everquill, Leicester Gazette 

“So. Farewell, then, Jaldeep Katwala. Expert voice coach and all-round good egg. I will miss your calming tones and happy grin. Looking forward to catching up with you in Leicester. Very best of luck.” Wendy Robertson, The Bridge 

“We can't thank Jaldeep enough for his help over the years. Any time we have needed him, he was immediately there for us. We're sad to see Jaldeep go, but delighted he is remaining in the community news space. We look forward to seeing him at future PINF conferences and wish him well in his new role at the Bristol Cable.” Archie MacKay – South West Durham News   

"What can we say about the whimsical Jaldeep. He’s our oldest member of staff, but ever the last to leave a social. His unique blend of sage advice and dirty dad jokes is truly one of a kind. He’s clearly loving his return to the newsroom - perhaps a little too much - and reliving the heady heyday of his journalism career. Bring on the wit and whisky." Priyanka Raval, The Bristol Cable

At least we can reassure ourselves knowing that Jaldeep isn’t leaving the PINF orbit. He’ll still be part of the Network in his new role at the Cable, so it’s less of a goodbye and more of a see ya later! Let's just hope he gets enough time to write that memoir...

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