James Holt
James Holt reports for the Manchester Evening News, focusing on fast-moving news and city stories where people, place and public life collide. Within that live reporting, he regularly picks up music and performance moments in public spaces, from a major music star busking in Seville to the street musicians and performers who shape everyday urban life. His work blends on-the-ground presence, digital live coverage and longer-form investigations, giving his music and culture pieces a strong sense of context and consequence.
Live breaking news and real-time coverage
Holt works on live and breaking news for the Manchester Evening News, handling evening shifts that are built around fast-paced incidents and developing stories. He runs live blogs that track unrest and disorder, using them not only to report what is happening but also to tell readers what is not happening when false clips circulate online.
In coverage of one night of disorder fuelled by misleading social media videos, he fielded multiple incoming clips, checked locations and timings, and explicitly flagged footage that did not match events on the ground.
His live work has also extended to major stories beyond the city, including developing new lines and conducting exclusive interviews around the disappearance of Jay Slater while reporting on the ground. Editors and judges have highlighted his ability to handle national- and international-level stories under pressure and to maintain sensitivity when reporting from the middle of volatile situations such as riots.
He frequently incorporates tools such as Facebook Live and self-filmed mini video documentaries into his reporting, turning breaking news into multimedia coverage that can travel quickly across platforms.
Investigations and special reports on systems and scams
Alongside live news, Holt undertakes investigations that expose how systems and services work in practice and where they fail. One investigation into driving test brokers uncovered a shadow market in which intermediaries block-book official appointments, sometimes using instructors’ reference numbers, and resell them at significantly marked-up prices. He joined WhatsApp groups offering last-minute slots, tracked how appointments were being traded, and documented how sellers promised dates in days rather than the long official waiting times.
In a special report on emergency housing, he examined conditions in “sit-up” accommodation after the death of a homeless man, detailing how some facilities offered only chairs rather than beds during severe cold weather.
That piece set out how the system operates, the range of different housing options, and the limits of what emergency provision can and cannot offer to rough sleepers. Earlier work highlighted technical and security issues, including hacked wifi servers across train stations and a firearm discovered at a high-profile restaurant launch, showing his willingness to dig into operational detail rather than treating incidents as one-off anomalies.
This strand of his reporting consistently follows a pattern: identify a pressure point in everyday systems, trace exactly how it functions and where exploitation or risk enters, and anchor the story in specific examples and affected people.
Street culture, buskers and public spaces
Holt’s features often return to the street as a stage, treating public spaces as places where music, performance and city life meet. In one “Mancunian Way” piece, he explored a clearance store packed with eclectic stock, writing about how bargain hunting and browsing shaped the atmosphere and drew in people looking for unexpected finds. Another instalment in the series framed a busy shopping street as “a catwalk,” where breakdancing teenagers, buskers, commuters and delivery cyclists shared the same stretch of pavement, and where he found a richer mix of characters than the area’s reputation for being overcrowded and grubby would suggest.
His investigation into controversial YouTuber Charlie Veitch began with the turmoil around Piccadilly Gardens and moved into a deeper exploration of how public performance, provocation and filming intersect with the city’s most vulnerable people. That work tracked Veitch’s evolution from offering free hugs and a philosophy of freedom to orchestrating confrontational content in public spaces, drawing out the impact on those around him rather than focusing solely on the creator. Within this street-level lens, his music coverage includes pieces on busking and spontaneous performance - such as the story of a major music star playing in the street in Seville as tourists slowly realise who is in front of them - treated as part of a broader pattern of how culture erupts in ordinary places.
Across these features, Holt’s distinct thread is attention to the people inhabiting public spaces, the textures of those environments, and the way performance - musical or otherwise - changes how they feel.
Recognition and multimedia approach
Holt has been recognised with a regional young journalist award for his work at the Manchester Evening News, with judges describing his output as combining exclusives, digital journalism and strong newsroom value. The citation for that award emphasised his professionalism, talent and integrity, as well as his ability to deliver a stream of local exclusives and to step into high-pressure situations when needed. Colleagues have praised him as a vital part of the newsroom and noted his willingness to travel, perform publicly for the masthead at major events and build a wide contacts book that feeds both his live coverage and his features.
His background in multimedia and broadcast journalism underpins his reporting style, giving him confidence with video and audio as well as text and encouraging him to think about how stories will work across platforms. He continues to develop investigative and feature work alongside his live news responsibilities, signalling an ongoing shift toward longer-form pieces that still retain the immediacy of his breaking news roots.
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 Lyon
Adam Lyon is a digital audience and content editor whose news beat sits at the intersection of Ayrshire’s cultural life, business environment and public affairs. He works for the Ayr Advertiser and as Digital Audience & Content Editor for Newsquest in the west of Scotland across multiple weekly titles. He covers Ayrshire news with a strong thread of music and local culture alongside business, courts and public affairs. He reports on music when it has a clear community or national hook, treating songs as news events rather than reviews. His business work explains how local firms and retail policy shape town centres. His court coverage uses round-ups of sheriff court cases to show patterns and outcomes. He also fronts video previews and is active in a football supporters trust community.
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.
Alex Rigotti
Alex Rigotti is a freelance music and culture editor and journalist who joins fast-turnaround music news with detailed reporting on artists, fandom and politics. They report breaking stories and live music updates for NME and Paste Magazine, covering pop, rock, club music, underground scenes and cultural debates around art and identity. Their live-music beat includes setlists, tours, festival appearances, cancellations, ticketing, venues and onstage collaborations. They previously served as a contributing editor for NME’s Radar section, supporting coverage of emerging artists and new scenes. Rigotti also writes features on rap lyrics and criminalisation, Eurovision and politics, queer feminist bodybuilding, astrotherapy and contemporary art. Their reporting is direct and specific, using clear quotes, concrete details and artists’ own words to explain what happened and how music fits into wider cultural and industry trends.