We recently caught up with alumnus Fergus Campbell (English, 2003) who has spent his career to date working in communications in both PR agencies and ‘in house’ at brands like Gumtree and eBay, to reminisce about his time at Exeter, and discover more about his time working at Exeposé – our University of Exeter student newspaper – 21 years on.
Exeposé has been produced entirely by and for students since 1987, and during his studies at Exeter Fergus channelled his love of news and language not only into his English degree but also through writing for Exeposé throughout his three years at Exeter.
In his first year he wrote quite a few articles as a reporter – largely news pieces as opposed to features – and in his second year was elected to the news editor position and spent time working on both the commissioning and layout of stories. In his final year he became co-editor of the newspaper, which meant his remit expanded to include staff management and operational matters. In fact, one such change that happened during his tenure was getting the distribution racks for visitors, staff, and students to grab their copies of Exeposé, that are still installed in the Forum on Streatham Campus today.
Reflecting on the experience Fergus said: “I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Exeposé during those three years. From spending time trying to make students less apathetic – on issues that felt like they should care about (e.g. bad landlords and misuse of power by those in positions of authority) – to treating significant stories with the right weight, and making the more general content more fun.
“I got involved with the paper as I was naturally attracted to writing and even laying out the pages, and still to this day am a heavy consumer of all-thing news and current affairs, be that online, broadcast and even in print. I also knew it would be good both socially, and for my CV. This is also something I encourage anyone thinking about a career in communications or PR to do, as for me, my first job after university was explicitly linked to my experience on the newspaper.”
This time also brought challenges such as when he was co-editor in his final year, balancing the relationship with the paper of the Student’s Guild and developing skills in managing relationships commercially and politically. But also being unafraid to stand up for what he believed in, which has served him well up until this day.
Some of the memorable stories that Fergus covered during his time on the paper include a visit of Michael Jackson, Uri Geller and David Blaine to Exeter City Football ground in 2002. He got involved in the thick of the action and buzz of the crowd and used the paper’s first ever digital camera – “the size of a shoe” – to take the photos that featured alongside writing the published article. As well as rubbing shoulders with a few celebrities/high-profile figures who visited campus, including the BBC’s Jeremy Vine and actor Sir Tony Robinson. Being a student newspaper, Fergus and the team also ended up covering stories about the University and getting to meet with the leadership team to discuss what was going on.
Fergus remembers that whilst there were big stories and excitement, his time working on the paper was also filled with long hours and hard graft. The students – both then and now – were working on the paper voluntarily for both the skills and development it offered and the love of writing and news. He would go out and take photos for stories, work on the layout of the paper and find time to also work at the old Birks Halls pub (The Boot), before eventually receiving first class marks for his dissertation that studied the relationship between the UK media and the concept of Britishness.
The paper also won an Exe-Media award, which Steve Wright (from Channel 4) came to present, and Fergus used his networking skills to his advantage and did work experience with him a few months later as a runner on his TV show, which allowed him to make more defined choices about the type of work that he wanted to go into further down the line (“It helped me realise that broadcast and being in TV wasn’t for me”).
Fergus has immense respect for the students who continue to lead the paper and for all the time and effort that takes, and it is fair to say that the experience provided him with many of the skills that he has used in the world of work since. When thinking back to some of the particular skills Fergus recalls “I feel that dealing with people and difficult situations is one that stands out for me. We were learning how to liaise with internal groups like the Guild and student bodies, local Devonian businesses, and sometimes other journalists.
“One moment that brought this home to me was in 2002 when we had a tabloid journalist trying to pay us for stories on alumnus Will Young (who at that time was a finalist in the first ever series of Pop Idol). We didn’t want to have anything to do with this gossip-merchant, and it was a good lesson in how certain aspects of the media at least can work, and a reminder on the importance of integrity in news production. It also aided with time management with getting to grips with deadlines, and practical skills such as Photoshop, which we used to lay out the paper – which the Express & Echo then printed for us weekly at their actual local presses. Most of all it provided an early increase to resilience as there was an awareness that if you wrote something you had to be ready for the reaction, and, if necessary, to stand behind the story.”
Following graduation, Fergus took the skills gained from his English degree, work experience and time on Exeposé and carved out a career in the world of communications following that love of editorial output. In the last 21 years, this has involved a variety of roles and we spoke about what he believes you have to have to be a good communicator:
“Working in communications you need a lot of skills and I’d argue that emotional intelligence (‘EQ’) is as crucial as your IQ. You are working on behalf of a brand or an organisation and when promoting that you’re trying to connect that subject to your audience and create empathy and, ultimately, a positive action. This involves really understanding people and, for example, writing in a more nuanced way. As a student journalist, you have to really care for news and be willing to make sacrifices for the story and make it be the best it can be. In essence, what both roles require is a deep understanding of the power of language and the weight of words. They matter if you are seeking sales of a product or connection with a story.”
Fergus is currently working as the Director of Corporate Affairs for EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) at global financial technology business Airwallex. We can’t wait to see where the next chapter of his story takes him during the next few decades, and more. Don’t forget you can keep up to date with the work of our current student journalists by picking up a copy of Exeposé from one of our distribution racks when you’re next on our Streatham Campus, or by following along online.