My Greatest Mistake: 'The first story that got the editor excited was one about a wet underpants competition'

Jane Moore, columnist on 'The SUn', LBC reporter and novelist

I trained on the Birmingham Post & Mail group, but I was desperate to come to London and get a job on one of the big papers.

When I was about 23, I saw an advertisement for a new paper called Sunday Sport. It was very eye-catching and it just said "We're going to out-Sun The Sun!". I thought I'd be good for that, and I applied to be a reporter.

I was invited to an interview above a warehouse; I didn't know at the time, but it was the warehouse where David Sullivan kept his porn mags. The interview was with Mike Gabbut, who went on to edit The Star. The first thing he said to me was: "Do these offend you?" and he held up some Page 3-style photographs. Topless pictures don't particularly offend me, but they were those real old hackneyed jobs with the girl on all fours and a gormless expression. These days, I'd probably shout loud and clear about that, but I was young at the time and I really wanted the job so I said: "Oh no, those don't offend me at all."

At the end of the interview they offered me the job of news editor. This should have rung a huge bell, I mean, why would they employ a 23-year-old girl as news editor? But I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I said great.

I swiftly realised there wasn't any news budget and it was basically very soft porn. The first story that got the editor excited was one about a wet underpants competition where a man was accused of cheating because he'd put a cucumber down his Y-fronts.

By the end of two weeks I realised this paper wasn't going to be my cup of tea. But I was already part of a massive publicity onslaught. They put me forward on TV and in the papers as if to say, "Look, we can't be sexist because we've got a female news editor".

The turning point came with a sketch on Spitting Image. As usual, they had used pigs to represent the press, but there was one with a blonde wig. Someone was saying to me: "What does sport mean?" and I said: "Sex, porn, orgies, rubbish and tits." At that point I thought perhaps it was time to move on.

I wanted to leave amicably, so I said that I missed reporting. I also gave a quote to the Press Gazette saying something flip like "I want to go out and about irritating people again." That caught the eye of Kelvin McKenzie and I was offered the job of co-editing The Sun's Bizarre page. So actually, although I hadn't liked all the attention at the time, it meant I got the tabloid job I really wanted.

Interview by Alice Lascelles