Adam Lyon
Adam Lyon is a digital audience and content editor at the Ayr Advertiser who covers Ayrshire news with a strong thread of music and local culture alongside business, courts and public affairs. His work brings together everyday local stories, from new songs and live events to economic change and court outcomes, in a single digital news stream for readers across Ayrshire. He balances this broad brief with a focus on how creative projects, especially music, intersect with sport and Scottish heritage.
Music stories rooted in sport and heritage
Within his wider news role, Lyon reports on music when it carries a clear community or national hook. One recent example is his coverage of a new song celebrating the Scotland World Cup squad that pays tribute to Robert Burns, a story that ties together football, national pride and Scotland’s literary tradition. In that piece he treats the song as a news event rather than a review, foregrounding its subject matter and cultural references rather than offering criticism. This approach reflects a music beat defined by local relevance and crossover with other parts of Ayrshire life, rather than by industry insider coverage or album reviews.
Business and high street reporting
Lyon’s business coverage focuses on Ayrshire firms and the changing shape of local commerce. In his story on Begg & Co of Ayr taking its first steps into the Chinese market, he highlights an established local company testing international waters, using the article to explain how a move into China fits into Ayr’s economic story. He also reports on policy and scrutiny around retail, such as a committee visit to Ayr to hear views on high streets, which brings national decision-makers into contact with local traders and residents. Across these pieces he treats business and high street issues as core parts of the news agenda, connecting company decisions and official visits to the future of town centres in Ayrshire.
Courts and public interest coverage
Lyon covers crime and legal proceedings through straightforward court reporting and digest formats. His “Round-up of Ayrshire court cases from the past week” collects cases from Ayr Sheriff Court and Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, summarising outcomes across multiple matters in a single article. This round-up structure allows him to track patterns and volume of cases while keeping individual entries concise, which is typical of his practical approach to public-interest reporting. Court coverage sits alongside his business and government work, giving his news output a strong thread of accountability and consequences for offences committed in Ayrshire.
Digital audience role across West of Scotland titles
Lyon works as a digital audience and content editor covering Ayrshire, a role that places him at the centre of online publishing for the Ayr Advertiser. Professional profiles describe him as Digital Audience & Content Editor for Newsquest in the west of Scotland, working across multiple weekly titles including the Ayr Advertiser, Cumnock Chronicle, Irvine Times, Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald, Largs & Millport Weekly News, Helensburgh Advertiser and Greenock Telegraph. His bylines on business, courts and government stories reflect this cross-title remit, with coverage that moves between different Ayrshire communities while maintaining a consistent news tone. Lyon also appears on video for the masthead, delivering previews of events such as the International Air Show Festival of Flight, which shows he is comfortable fronting multimedia content as well as writing articles. Beyond the newsroom, he presents himself on social media as a journalist and communications director for a football supporters trust, underlining long-standing links to the local football community. Taken together, his role combines digital editing, general news reporting and occasional music coverage, making him a contact for stories that sit at the intersection of Ayrshire’s cultural life, business environment and public affairs.
4 more music journalists.
Abigail Kellett
Abigail Kellett is a news reporter at the Halifax Courier who stands out for visually led coverage that shows how culture, nightlife and local life play out on the ground. She documents gigs, festivals and major live shows at venues such as The Piece Hall through curated photo sets that capture atmosphere, crowd and setting as much as performers, and she uses extensive image galleries to tap reader nostalgia for nights out in Halifax town centre. Her beat spans arts, entertainment, going out, heritage, books and literary events, along with community life, people stories, local challenges, milestones, transport, regeneration, lifestyle and food. She reports through photographs, checklist-style features, reader-driven lists and roundups of most-read stories, turning announcements, programmes, author events, festivals, shop lists and everyday characters into stories about place, shared memory and how people spend their time.
Adam Maidment
Adam Maidment is a senior What’s On and LGBTQ+ reporter whose work links big-name gigs, new venues and cultural flashpoints to everyday fan culture and inclusion. He covers music, nightlife and the wider cultural scene for the Manchester Evening News, focusing on how concerts, openings and immersive events land with real people and communities. His beat spans live music, arenas and stadiums, new restaurant and bar openings, food reviews, exhibitions, street art and nightlife infrastructure, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ audiences and neighbourhoods. He reports on venue ambitions and problems, cultural institutions and equality issues, and franchise-led experiences, using straightforward, on-the-ground reporting and clear description. Drawing on a background in community reporting, he looks for underrepresented perspectives and uses social media, analytics and local sourcing to find stories where culture, identity and place meet.
Alison Brinkworth
Alison Brinkworth is a freelance journalist who treats music as a gateway into place, history and everyday life, often through exhibitions, performances and city-centre events. She covers music within the wider cultural and lifestyle scene, leaning toward accessible, on-the-ground stories framed by familiar artists, venues and local attractions. Her work often focuses on music exhibitions and attractions built around well-known performers, alongside theatre reviews, live events and city attractions. She brings a lifestyle, travel and human-interest sensibility, using interviews and personal stories to show how people spend their time. With over 25 years of experience across print, digital, social media and internal communications, she writes clear, factual, audience-facing articles with dates, locations and organisers, suited to listings, guides and practical recommendations.
Alison Cornmell
Alison Cornmell is Media Relations Manager at the University of Liverpool. She works in the Press Office and specializes in Health and Life Sciences communications. Her role is not journalism. She develops strategic communications that connect university researchers with media outlets and advises academics on media engagement. She focuses on health sciences and life sciences research dissemination. She has also been involved in university communications work such as the acquisition of poet Roger McGough’s archive. She works with colleagues like Cat Owen to produce internal resources that explain media relations to researchers, and she appears in university podcasts about promoting research effectively. She holds education from Manchester Metropolitan University and works within the institutional framework that manages media inquiries, press releases, and researcher-media connections.