Chris Lepkowski joins Prost International as our fourth columnist

 

Chris Lepkowski is the latest columnist to sign up for Prost International.

Chris has over a quarter century experience writing about sport after initially starting out as a journalist for the Bromsgrove Messenger/Advertiser before moving to Haymarket’s Motoring News in 1998 as a national racing correspondent. He later joined Autosport.com, being one of the first multi-media journalists within that sector.

From there Chris moved on to football joining FourFourTwo.com, being one of just three full-time staff members on the football magazine’s all-new all-singing-all-dancing website.

A move back to the Midlands saw Chris take up a role on the Birmingham Mail sports desk and the iconic Sports Argus title, primarily as the West Bromwich Albion reporter, while also filling in for others.

At that time, he covered characters such as Trevor Francis, Graham Taylor, Steve Bruce, Gary Megson, Bryan Robson and Glenn Hoddle were pounding the West Midlands’ technical areas. As the decade evolved, he embraced the shift from working as a traditional newspaper reporting into multi-media journalism.

In 2014, Chris took a step out of journalism to take a role as head of media & content at West Bromwich Albion for a little under two years. He subsequently worked as communications manager for a politician and a multi-national firm, while working matchdays freelancing for the national press including the Sunday Times, Times, Daily Star and Mirror.

In more recent times he has contributed to The Blizzard, FourFourTwo, When Saturday Comes and written two books, with the third book, ghosting the autobiography of a footballer, among his projects.

He has also guested on Turkish TV, Arabic media, BBC WM, BBC Midlands Today and been a contributor to, and host of, football podcasts.

He joined Birmingham City University as lecturer in sports journalism in 2019, before taking over as course director in 2021.

Chris said:

“I am absolutely thrilled to be part of Prost International’s platform – one that not only offers a potential pathway for the journalists of tomorrow, but gives a platform to those of us who should know better.

“At BCU we instil an ethos that our young undergraduates are journalists studying at university, rather than being university undergraduates who happen to be studying journalism.

“I’ve worked in communications. I’ve worked on the front line of a Premier League football club and fought fires for a prominent politician, but the most rewarding experiences in my career have been as a journalist news-gathering and breaking stories. There is no better thrill than delivering new information to an engaged audience.

“I have been privileged to serve during a time when the industry underwent a shift from traditional newspaper journalism into multi-media practice – where reporters not only became digital, audio and broadcast practitioners, but also embraced social media and became brands in their own right.

“I can only endorse Prost International for creating networking and opportunities into what I still believe is the best industry in the world: journalism.”

He joins Glenn Moore, cricket writer Annie Chave and broadcaster Kartik Krishnaiyer in the Prost International stable.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt