Community reporter Grace Price on her first year at the Monmouthshire Beacon: “That’s what having a dedicated community reporter means”

Community news reporter Grace Price has marked her first year at the Monmouthshire Beacon by covering the town’s worst flooding in recent memory, building a loyal audience across multiple platforms and passing her shorthand. It was a year, she said, that would not have been possible without the Community News Project (CNP).

Grace joined the Monmouthshire Beacon as a community reporter in early 2025,  through the NCTJ Community News Project which supports individuals work towards their Diploma in Journalism while placed at a local newsroom.  The scheme gave her a route into an industry she had not known how to break into.

“I didn’t really know how to get into journalism,” she said. “When I came across the CNP, it opened my eyes to how it all fits together. It’s been honestly amazing, it’s really, really helped.”

That confidence has grown steadily. Strangers now stop her on the high street to say they have seen her videos.

“It’s just a little bit of reassurance that you’re on the right track and the work you’re doing is paying off,” she said.

Flooding in Monmouth

The defining test of that first year came in November, when Monmouth flooded. Grace was on the ground within hours, filming and interviewing a resident who had just been rescued by boat from her flooded home. The following day, she knocked on doors.

“It was probably outside my comfort zone, because I had never done it before,” she said. “Some people were willing to speak; others were understandably against it, which I completely understood.”

Weeks of follow-up coverage came next. A chance conversation during a vox pop led to one of her most-read pieces, a regularly updated article listing which town centre shops were open and closed in the run-up to Christmas, which received close to 10,000 views.

“It was something so simple, but something which I think really benefited the community,” she said. “For an article so small, it actually did really well.”

The floods also produced one of her most unexpected stories. A church in one of the worst-hit parts of town had been left completely untouched by the water. Grace heard about it while out reporting and tracked down the vicar for an interview.

“I don’t think anybody else had reported on it,” she said. “Without me being out there in the community, I might not have heard about it. That’s what having a dedicated community reporter means for a place like Monmouth.”

It was a point underlined when the Beacon’s own newsroom went underwater. It remains closed. Grace adapted, splitting her time between a sister office and Monmouth’s public library, and learned quickly that community reporting requires practical preparation as much as journalistic instinct. A recent assignment covering the lifting of a historic bridge left her standing in a waterlogged field in entirely the wrong shoes.

“I’ve taken that on board now,” she said. “Always bring a spare pair of boots.”

Her NCTJ training has provided an equally practical foundation, shaping the way she approaches every story from media law to shorthand.

“Even just little things, like knowing I don’t have to reveal a confidential source,” she said. “You just do it subconsciously, sometimes without even realising. It’s honestly been amazing.”

After putting in extra sessions and hours of practice after work, Grace achieved her 60 words per minute in her shorthand exam. “I cried. My mum thought something was wrong,” she said. “It just makes you feel really proud of yourself, because you care so much about it and you’ve put in the work.”

Beyond her reporting, Grace has worked to ensure the Beacon’s coverage reaches as wide an audience as possible. She set up the publication’s TikTok account, extending its reach to audiences the paper had not previously connected with. A parent stopped her on the high street to say their children had been keeping up with local news through her videos.

“I’ve got a feel now for what kinds of stories will land on which platforms,” she said. “Our Greggs story, announcing they weren’t reopening after the flooding, might sound small, but I knew it would cut through, and it did.”

It is that instinct for her community, she said, that lies at the heart of what she is trying to do.

“People can connect with you when they see a person. It feels authentic,” she said. “At the end of the day, you’re supposed to amplify the voices of the community. That’s what I’m really trying to do.”

For Grace, the CNP has been more than a route into journalism. It has been, she said, the making of her career.

“The tutors have been amazing, the courses have been difficult but so worthwhile, and having other CNP reporters to bounce ideas off has been invaluable,” she said. “If I look back at how many steps it took to get here, I’ve been handed such a fantastic opportunity. Why would you give that up?”