Let's face it – this week much of the news in Maldon hasn't been easy for anyone, whatever your personal take on it.

As a local journalist, having interesting news to report is always something you want – but I would rather report good news than bad every time. It simply isn't true that negative stories always get far more response than positive ones. Yes, the biggest crime and other stories draw readers – but so to do the truly 'happy' stories where the community comes together or something incredible is achieved.

And they tend to be the more enduring stories, too, that readers return to time and again.

Two stories this week that come to mind as great examples of this are the runaway Fiver Fest success and the way local people dug into their own pockets for repairs to a vandalised van, owned by German organ builders who came to Maldon to install an organ at St Mary's Church.

You can find the story on Fiver Fest HERE and read about how the community raised funds for the van HERE.

However, the difficult news was the imposition of Tier 2 'High' level Covid-19 restrictions across the Essex county area – and, of course, in Maldon.

I won't deny it – when the stories I write receive positive feedback I enjoy it. Who doesn't like to receive nice feedback on their work? And I know that people who react to the stories I post are doing just that and, generally, reacting to the content and not to the job I've done. But when news is so unwelcome, sometimes the messenger gets shot.

Editorial decisions where you cannot please everyone, where if you post a piece of news some people will say that you are causing alarm and where if you don't, others will say you are choosing to ignore important news (and so bringing in your own view or agenda) are fortunately not the life and death decisions some people have to make every day in the course of their work. But that still doesn't make them easy.

What I can say is that as editor of Maldon Nub News I will always do my best to make sure that the news we publish is unbiased and based on the idea of 'reporting', of being that messenger for the local community.

And as part of that, the positive continues. As we posted this week, we will offer all the support we possibly can to the businesses of Maldon District through this crisis, whatever it brings. For more on what we can offer to help, you can visit that story HERE.