Journalist Spotlight | Interview with Tileah Dobson, Reporter at NewsLocal

Today, Medianet is joined by Reporter for NewsLocal, Tileah Dobson. Tileah talks about her experience at the beginning of her career, as well as the need for more community-centred and led publications.

Hi Tileah! Thanks again for participating in our Spotlight interviews! Firstly, could you tell me a bit about the beginning of your career in the media? I’m really intrigued by your start as Queer Editor at the Sydney Sentinel!

I actually started as the News Editor at the Sydney Sentinel. Someone who worked with them had reached out to a friend of mine asking if she was interested or knew anyone who was and she passed it along to me. So I applied, had a phone interview with Peter Hackney while I was grocery shopping in Woolies at the time and got hired. 

So I was in general news until a bit later when Peter mentioned looking for a Queer Editor and I told him I was part of the LGBTQ+ community since I’m bi-sexual. I was a baby bi at the time, having only made that self discovery so I stepped into the role until we found someone with more experience and connections.

After someone was found, I stepped back to general news but also became a sub-editor for the Sydney Sentinel.

I was working at the Sentinel while also studying full time at university and working in retail so it was a lot to juggle! But I don’t regret any of it. And while sadly the Sentinel later shut down, I’m so thankful to Peter and the other journalists that I learnt from.

You’ve worked at multiple outlets throughout your career. What are some of the biggest differences between how they plan and produce content? And how have they prepared you for your current role at Southern Courier?

Oh god, it really has been a lot. I think the major differences are between how a newsroom produces their content. So a primarily digital one like news.com.au aren’t worried about organising photo shoots with case stories for a yarn, unlike ones that print like The Australian and The Daily Telegraph. 

With Newswire and National News Network, it’s about breaking news. Short, sweet and getting to the point with a story. The other was taking a generic story and fleshing it out more, going into more detail about a topic. 

From these news rooms I’ve learnt how to pitch a story better, how to take a PR-heavy pitch and turn it into a story, how to have fun with some light fluff pieces and how to treat a sensitive topic correctly. But I think my previous experience with Sydney’s City Hub has been a boon for my work with the Southern Courier/News Local.

What does your current media cycle look like? Could you walk us through a day in your life and are there any special dates/events that you plan or look out for content?

There’s four places I look into for stories: Council, Community, Development Applications and PR. Anything going on with local councils, whether that’d be going through their business papers and motions from meetings, councils and councillors are always doing something. 

Community is usually coming from social media like Facebook groups or Instagram. Someone might post something about two young girls getting attacked at a shopping centre or someone’s noticed smoke coming from a house and I’m on the phone to emergency services to find out more. Even some GoFundMes are a great place to find stories and helping others out this way is really rewarding. 

DAs are always interesting to look through as you can find some hidden gems like a school buying a residential house across the street from them to turn it into another classroom, or your local pub doing some renovations that people aren’t happy with.

PR people are always sending through pitches in order to get their clients some media which is part of their job. Sometimes you’ll find some good stuff like one I did recently on a blind man in NSW going to compete in his second Sydney to Hobart yacht race later this year. 

I also want to ask about your time at LGBTQ+ community publications. How did you land those roles and what do you hope will become of smaller, community-centred publications like CityHub and StarObserver?

So I was scouted by CityHub’s publisher after a colleague of mine from the Sydney Sentinel recommended me. They were after someone who had experience in news and sub-editing to take over for their news editor at the time who was going on a holiday. At the time, I also needed to complete an internship for my uni degree so the stars aligned. It also helped that it was a paid internship. 

So I took over for a few weeks, running the news side of CityHub and when their editor came back, jumped over to the StarObserver for the same reason as their Sydney-based reporter was on holiday.

After the internship ended, they offered me a place as their Weekend Editor for the StarObserver and regular contributor for CityHub as they were impressed with my work and attitude. 

I honestly hope these types of publications continue as they really help give people starting out in the industry the much needed experience. Nowadays you need to have at least 2-3 years experience on top of a degree in many industries. Which puts a lot of pressure on those trying to break into the industry. 

Not only that, but it’s always good to have grass-rooted publications to help make people’s voices feel heard. News Local has been doing that and I hope my patch sees my efforts to have their stories told.

How have you found an outlet’s politics/political leanings affect its journalists? And what are some of the biggest misconceptions about your work/publication?

I have noticed that trend with certain publications and journalists. I won’t say anything more on that point, but a senior journalist at News Corp once told me during my cadetship that he makes it a point for politicians to never know his personal views because it’ll affect his job.

Which I came to respect and have even taken on that particular thought. Because we’re meant to remain the fourth estate and give people an unbiased, factly accurate report on something or a politician. I wouldn’t be able to do my job properly and build connections with politicians and their offices if they knew I didn’t agree with them politically. It also helps that I keep my personal life very separate from my professional life. 

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about my work is that all journalists are gutter trash. A few bad apples and mistrust has soured it a little but I don’t let that get to me. Heck, I even wear that insult with a badge of pride at times.

Lastly, have you received a memorable pitch lately? And how much do you engage with Medianet and our services/press releases? 

Not so much the pitch, but the outcome of a story has been memorable to me. It was sent through by GoFundMe about a toddler from Mudgee having a mandarin-sized tumour found on her head. She was rushed to Westmead with her parents and her godmother set up a GoFundMe to help with medical costs. 

I did the story with my heart breaking hearing what she’d been through and afterwards, her mother reached out to me and thanked me for covering it. That felt great but what made it even better was that more donations came through and even a charity reached out to offer financial support to the family. 

The story was later picked up by 7News so more people have donated. It just warms my heart to watch in real time the results of my story and how it evolved into really helping this family out. 

I reached out to the godmother recently and there’s a treatment plan in place and as far as I’m aware, the toddler will pull through.

I don’t engage with Medianet as much as I used to, only because of the very local nature of my work but I used you guys a lot in my early career and even now I keep an eye out and try and see if I can find a local angle on some of the stuff you guys send through.