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Prior to working at Northumbria, Roger was a journalist working for a range of print and online organisations. He was deputy production editor on the Sunday Sun and Chief Sub Editor on the Shields Gazette. He was also part of the team that launched sportinglife.com; before working on the Press Association’s website ananova.com as senior web content producer. He continues to work as a journalist as the North East football correspondent for the Morning Star.

Roger’s first book From the Back Page to the Front Room, which is a history of English football media was shortlisted for the 2015 Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History. The Independent on Sunday called it “a tour de force” and The New Statesman said it “deserves to be the standard text on the subject”. The International Journal of the History of Sport described it as “as study of tremendous readability and depth”.

Roger’s main research interests are in sports media and it’s wider impact on popular culture; the history of sport, and; the new and social media.