Under the Hood with CGM's Alison Middleton

Superman.

With the cape, the flying, the incredible strength and the unerring sense of right and wrong, it’s no wonder the character continues to inspire so many people across the world.

His stories reached the small town of Forfar in the county of Angus, Scotland, where six-year-old Alison Middleton would watch Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

But to Alison, it wasn’t the ‘Man of Steel’ but Lois Lane – a hard-hitting journalist for the fictional Daily Planet newspaper – who was the real inspiration.

Now 42, Alison stresses that she didn’t relate to Lois because she wanted to be rescued, but for her freedom and independence as a professional journalist.

“She was really tough, but kind, and she was respected and formidable, and she got to write and meet interesting people,” she explains.

“That just blew my mind that it was something that could be picked to do for a job. You get to meet interesting people and tell their stories. To me, that was the dream.

“I was six years old, and I said ‘Mum, I want to be a journalist’.

“It's great big world out there and I just wanted to experience it.”

Alison, who visits home this month for the first time since the pandemic began, still has an abiding affection for the place she grew up.

“It doesn't take away my love for being for home because it's always home and Scotland's this beautiful, magical wonderful place. But sometimes you just have to see what else is out there,” she explains.

With a talent for writing and a fierce determination and curiosity, Alison got her shot at pursuing her dream at 20, with a job at The Press & Journal, Scotland’s biggest regional newspaper.

The paper had a reputation for being so tough, that even the security guard tried to warn Alison off working there when she came for her job interview.

“There was a feeling that if you could survive a year at P&J, you could work anywhere,” she says.

Alison did more than survive, despite being thrown in the deep end when the journalist she was supposed to be working under gave notice, leaving Alison to cover the whole Dundee, Angus, Perth – the other one – and Kinross by herself.

With a busy beat that allowed her to cover everything from murders and car crashes to politics, court and council, the lessons Alison learned from her time at the P&J taught her lessons that remain with her today.

“It taught me resilience. It taught me how to ask for help. And it taught me that it's okay to take 10 minutes to sit on the floor of your office and cry for a little while,” she says.

“But then you need to pick yourself up and you still need to get the work done.”

Far removed from her childlike amazement with Lois Lane’s career, Alison quickly understood the demanding reality of being a journalist but is unwavering in defending the need for it.

“A lot of people don't understand the courage that it takes and the integrity that it takes and the impact that it can have on people when you've covered really sad, really traumatic stories,” she says.

“Trying not to take that home with you can be really impossible. But we do what we have to do because local communities deserve to know the truth.

“People in authority have to be held to account and they need to be reminded that people are people are people, and that was always really important to me.”

Alison’s journalistic career has provided all the experiences and excitement she wanted and more, including covering the fallout of war in Kosovo, narrowly escaping kidnapping twice, standing alongside the world’s elite media at a United Nations press conference and travelling the world.

The dangers she faced led to some difficult conversations with her loved ones about coming back home for good, but Alison says that was never an option for her.

“When you're from a small town where everybody knows each other, there are no surprises really,” she says.

“When I'm curious and just following that feeling it leads me to great places. It leads me to great stories, it leads me to great people, it leads to great food, great conversations.

“It reminds me of a famous quote: a ship is safest in the harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”

That same curiosity led Alison to explore different jobs for a time, but her desire to see the world remained unchanged and she ended up settling in New Zealand, more than 18,000km away from Angus.

After spending time in orchards, dairies and vineyards there, Alison came to Australia to work on the vines, determined to dive into a career in viticulture.

An unfortunate bushfire that devastated the renowned Margaret River vineyards while she was there put that idea on hold indefinitely.

Alison returned to journalism, but never in one place for too long, her itchy feet taking her from Perth to Melbourne, where she discovered a knack for digital news at some of the country’s most prestigious mastheads.

Reflecting on a young Alison’s indifference to Superman, a possible explanation is the superhero that was on the couch next to her already – her Mum, Glennis.

“I come from a family of matriarchs, and even among them my Mum was absolutely formidable,” Alison says.

“Mum was on the council, she was the convener of social work, she was a fighter and a defender for vulnerable people, for anyone who couldn't or wouldn't speak up for themselves.”

It’s a running gag in Alison’s family that they don’t know where her insatiable curiosity or independence came from, but her sense of justice and determination is much more easily traced.

“That defiance comes from my Mum and the self-belief and the courage that she had,” she says.

“Mum raised me to be kind and to take ownership. She told me that if I was prepared to work hard, then there is no reason I couldn’t have what I wanted.”

Alison’s Mum was an advocate for women in particular, and she tries to follow her lead in mentoring and protecting women, especially those in media.

That led to her joining Women in Media WA, where she tries to offer whatever support women in distress need.

“It means a lot to be able to support younger women because I know what it's like to be in tough situations,” she says.

“I wanted to be the sort of woman that other women could come to when they needed support.

“It can mean having a coffee or tea with someone who’s having a bad day, but sometimes it means practical advice like coaching someone to ask for a pay rise or advice on a career change.”

In 2018, working at the Herald Sun in a role and with a team that she loved, Alison received the call that changed everything.

Her mother had suffered a heart attack, and Alison dropped everything to be by her side, making it just in time for a last hug goodbye before Glennis Middleton passed from this world.

The loss of her mother sparked a radical shift in the way Alison approached her career and her life.

“Before, I’d been quite strategic about where I wanted to go, afterwards I just let myself feel and act on instinct,” Alison says.

This more instinctive approach to decision-making helped Alison back to a childhood passion for creative writing.

“I remember being a kid and being really frustrated that I had to wait for someone to read to me, because I couldn’t read yet,” she recalls.

“You’re always impatient when you’re little and when I learned to read, I just started writing my own stories, and I’ve always loved it.”

After focusing exclusively on journalism for so long, a good friend pushed Alison to enter a creative writing competition and she was awarded first place with a near-perfect score.

Doing so awakened a side of Alison that had long been dormant.

“I’ve been looking outside for creativity, in books and movies, but I think I needed that creative outlet,” she explains.

“To have something creative, that's coming from me is challenging, and requires a bravery that I hadn't really let myself experience to put myself out there. It’s an amazing feeling, it’s vibrant and exciting.”

Moving away from journalism to a role as senior media advisor with CGM Communications with better work-life balance has given Alison the space to engage with writing, and a follow-up to her award-winning short story is already in the works.

In choosing CGM, it was the people and the purpose that drew her here.

“I was really clear that I wanted to come and work in a place where they were really great people, the kind of people that I could learn from, and that's what I was focused on,” she says.

“The talent and the experience here is absolutely phenomenal.”

The path her itchy feet have taken her down has uniquely prepared her to excel in the role.

“I think my experiences travelling and being a journalist, my curiosity and need to tell different stories all comes together here,” she says.

“I still just want to tell people’s stories, people who can’t always speak for themselves.

“We're working with Legal Aid WA, Lifeline WA and Australian Potash. That includes legal assistance for vulnerable people, suicide prevention and food security and the environment. I love that.”

As someone whose origin story began with a superhero – and some guy in a cape on television – Alison is happy to be using her powers for good.?