Friday lunchtime saw me at a Met Club event in Leeds, where the guest speaker was David Parkin, editor of thebusinessdesk.com who gave a fantastic run through of his journalism career highs the pinnacle of which was, perhaps, interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Not that I’m suggesting it’s all been downhill since then; it plainly hasn’t, but more of that later.)

It wasn’t “look how great I am, I’ve met Arnie” though. Journalism is about telling a story, and doing it well, and getting to meet Arnie – essentially as Governor of California, as opposed to the movie star – meant that David had a really good tale.

Briefly, he’d been in Las Vegas on holiday, gone for a haircut where the barber had cut the locks of the Rat Pack and during the conversation it was established that David was from England, and that the now-late Lord Hanson had been at that very shop for a haircut, having fled his native Huddersfield for the slightly more exotic Vegas.

On the back of that David, as the then-business editor of the Yorkshire Post got to interview Hanson, which lead to meeting Arnie a few months and many phone calls later.

Since then David has become an entrepreneur, launching thebusinessdesk.com to provide up-to-the minute business news for Yorkshire, and latterly the North West. As a former online journalist myself with PA New Media’s Ananova.com which was eventually sold to Orange, I can appreciate why he went digital; it’s the immediacy of informing your audience.

Newspapers do still seem to be confused/scared by the internet, and real cynics would say they are doomed; just as the printed novel was going to be when the internet started to blossom because books were eventually going to only be available to read online.

Since establishing Blue Sky PR, and thanks to my online background, I’ve always appreciated the internet as a legitimate news source and have pushed it with clients because newspaper sales are down, which leads to a reduction in staffing levels, reduced pagination etc and ultimately less space for news not generated from press agencies.

Not that newspapers are fated; they won’t die, they just need to adapt which means some tough and very brave decisions over the next few years.

Getting back to Arnie though, he, along with Bruce Willis and Sly Stallone  are alleged to have bought cigars from a shop in Otley (where Blue Sky PR was founded), however, it’s worth pointing out that they ordered them via the internet, though it’s unconfirmed that Schwarzenegger said at any time: “I’ll be back”.