“To be a good journalist you’ve got to have that streak that makes you want to push those boundaries, tell the truth, and question the status quo.”

But Francis Malley found that, when it comes to sports reporting for a small community newspaper in Northland, this is equivalent to rocking the boat. “Initially a lot of people were upset with me.

“In a community newspaper you’re always looking for good news, especially with sports news. People ring up and say, 'Rugby numbers are dropping Frank. Can you give us a good review for the end of the season?’ And you hype up the quality of the game.

“I try to get rid of the clichés and dig out the interesting stuff. Once you start ringing around you find out that maybe somebody got knocked out or your player played dirty, things like that.

“Every now and again you get a good story, like cricket’s dying up here, but as soon as you start writing things like that people get really upset. But the whole aim is to make the paper more interesting, beyond just reporting the results.”

This attitude means Frances gets his share of complaints in letters to the editor. “It always hurts when someone criticises your writing. But the way I see it, if you’re not getting any feedback at all you’re just writing bland news!”

Journalism is Francis’s second career. A builder by trade, he was doing an office technology course when the teacher noticed that his writing was good and asked whether he had considered becoming a journalist. “A light just clicked on; writing was something I had always wanted to do but until then I had just buried the idea. As soon as she said it I went straight in and signed on to a journalism course.”

Francis has no regrets about following his dream. “I work six days a week, but I love it. You could say I’ve made it a hard job, but that’s because I’m trying to make people sit up and read our paper.”