Who we are

Deborah (Deb) Shannon

With more than 30 years in the newspaper industry, our tenacious and perpetually inquisitive media consultant Deb has covered or been involved in the majority of stories and events that have happened over the past three decades. She can turn her hand to a range of writing styles from hard news to features and is a fantastic all-round journalist, adept at interviewing and design too.

Her career started 32 years ago as a general news reporter on a weekly series, East Yorkshire Newspaper. She was chief reporter within a few years, aged just 21. She also single-handedly set up their new weekly edition. After five years, it was time to move on to the Hull Daily Mail, which then sold more than 100,000 copies a day, first as a reporter and latterly as district news editor.

Five years later she moved again and settled in Gloucestershire, devoting 21 years to the Gloucestershire Echo. She joined the Echo in 1988 and served as deputy news editor for seven years and then 14 years as a sub-editor, mainly on news but also in features, working on supplements and magazines as a writer and designer. For the last three years she also worked on the Citizen newspaper and the Gloucestershire Media website. A highlight of her career was reporting on the Rose West trial in the Cromwell Street murders case as one of only 150 journalists allowed in court.

Deb's new world is Vivid. She left the Echo last September and joined us with the aim of exploring new areas of communication and using different skills. She's still writing, but now it's to promote businesses, community projects and charities.

Outside work she takes an active role in her son Lucas' school, Holy Trinity CofE Primary in Fairview, Cheltenham. She's on the PTFA, which raised £10,000 last year for the school. She helps take 60 eight-year-olds swimming, has a team of young reporters producing the school's first newspaper and sits in with the little ones practising their reading.

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