Caught three people out on April Fool’s Day. One quite spectacularly. Not that I’m naming names, eh Brian?

I lost a reporter recently – careless, I know. And I lost a good one. Twice award-nominated Jo Gilbert.

When young Jo joined the paper as a trainee, I used to tinker with her work a lot. Tinkering is a big part of editing copy.

Editors tinker for a lot of reasons.

• We tinker to make introductions “sexy”. Intros need to be short and snappy, they need to engage the reader who has a notoriously short attention span, and who may well be conditioned to press a red button for their information download in one bite-sized chunk. As any good journalism college will tell you – and probably most of the bad ones too, the who, where, when, why, what and how of a story should be front and centre at the start of almost all copy. Whenever we get a trainee in or someone comes in on work experience, I ask them to pick up a copy of my paper, open it at a random page and tick off each of those essential pieces of information in the first few paragraphs. If they can’t, it may well be my fault… or there may just be a reason. The better you get at repeating the formula, the greater a liberty you can, occasionally, take.
• We tinker to keep things legal. Contrary to popular opinion, we’re meticulously careful on local papers to get things right. We try not to publish rumour and supposition. We check our facts – and if they can’t be checked in time for our 24-7 news hungry audience, we say what we know is a fact and who we’ve contacted to find out more. In a world of rolling news and live blogging, keeping an audience with us as the news is breaking – is a great way to do this.
• We tinker to make sure the angle of the story is right. There’s always more than one way to tell a story. So we seize on what makes it news above all else. She’s been waiting for a new bathroom for how long? Right. But she hasn’t washed in almost a year? Aha!
• We tinker to check grammar, punctuation and spelling. We don’t always get it right – the speed at which we work makes that impossible. But luckily if we make a slight error, there’s always a helpful soul
• And we tinker to make sure the story reads well and complies with house style.

I started off tinkering with Jo’s copy quite a lot. Then after a few months, she started to say, ‘I knew you were going to change my story like that’. To which I’d always reply, ‘so why didn’t you change it yourself?’

So she started changing it herself.

Towards the end of her time, there was very little I had to do to Jo’s copy. We might have different styles, but generally the way she was writing stories was the way I’d write them too.

At that stage there’s usually three ways for a now senior reporter working on a weekly paper to go. They get promoted. They go to a national. Or they take a sideways step into the wonderful world of PR.

I may never know what attracted Jo to the well paid, comparatively stress-free job she took, where out-of-hours overtime involves wine tasting, quite possibly abroad.

But I’ll happily raise a glass to her new career.

The future is bright, but the future is digital. And it’s proving to be a tricky transition for many of those involved.

Local paper newsrooms up and down the country are laying off staff. Respected titles which once boasted in-house subbing teams ready to berate cub reporters, on site IT support staff, a fleet of notebook-clutching news reporters, and staff photographers on call whenever they were needed -have now made way for subs who reporters never see, largely telephone-based IT support abroad, one reporter or two reporters staving off the day when all they do is content harvest and a freelance photographer as and when the budget will stretch to it.

Something has to give. Because some of the remaining staff that are keeping these papers going are working extraordinary hours to keep them afloat and put out a quality product – or at least one which doesn’t get anyone sued. They do it with skill, and passion, and dedication. They do it because they love what they do. But they won’t do it forever.

But then, they won’t need to. Many are leaving. And sooner or later, printed papers will, no pun whatsoever intended, fold.

It’s a shame but no profession has the right to exist and every business has to make money. And for the moment, they way that local papers are staying afloat is my minimising costs and maximising advertising revenue.

And they are turning to the web- because that’s where there readers are.

Does it matter? It depends how you like your news.

Sure, you can rely on social media, or look at a hyper-local website.

But in the case of the former, you can’t really trust what you’re reading. A few years ago now, as there were riots taking place in the capital, there were reports on Twitter that the violence had spread to sunny Redhill where at the time, I was senior reporter at the Surrey Mirror. As each and every report came in – McDonalds was on fire, there was fighting in the park – we dispatched our most junior member of staff to report back to us. And it was all utter nonsense.

And in the case of the latter – you want to be sure you know you’re not just reading advertising puff all the time with an endless procession of cut and paste press releases which are dutifully put up, and steadfastly unquestioned. I’m not keen to read well spun press releases from companies and councils (for they, at least, have money to spend on the people who write for them). There’s no point in having the potatoes if you never get the steak.

But what if you want proper news, brought to you by qualified journalists, not frightened to ask the difficult questions, shrewd enough to check the truth of what they are being told and – well – doing actual journalism.

Well, then someone will have to pay for it.

It could be advertising – more on that elsewhere on this blog. The more obtrusive the adverts, the more cash they generate, but the more the public protests and ultimately, goes elsewhere. Or you can put the site behind a paywall. Recent experiments with that have met with mixed success.

I’d love to finish this post with a clever answer. I’m afraid don’t have one.

 

“Pedo lolly pop man”.

 

That was the headline on the stick (sidebar) of one of the papers my old boss used to edit. The picture in question was accompanied by a photograph of the alleged criminal in question. Just another front page, you might think. But not that day.

 

There was two problems. The first? It was a headline that the facts didn’t support. It could have cost Trinity Mirror a lot of money, but more expensively, it could have cost someone their job – and an innocent man a lot more.

 

The page had been laid out by a sub editor working in another office. The phonecall that followed brought the office to a standstill:

 

“What the f*** are you doing? He hasn’t been convicted yet! This is a live court case! This could cost someone their job. Me!”

 

And the second problem? The editor raised his voice. “And furthermore. ..”

 

“And furthermore, LOLLIPOP IS ONE WORD!”

Have you ever wondered what an editor does?

There was a time, not so very long ago, when the job of a newspaper editor was reasonably straightforward.

The editor edited the copy written by reporters, and sent that copy to pages for subs to lay out on the page. They took charge at news meetings and were full of ideas and enthusiasm to inspire their (usually) younger charges. They had time to be creative, to liaise with the graphic designers, and photographers and to get their paper in the best possible shape.

Property pages were dealt with by a property editor. Entertainment pages had an entertainment editor. Proofing of pages was done by subs. And there was a web editor responsible for putting stories up online.

How times have changed!

I love my job. But its breadth is far greater than the job I had when I first took on the role.

It’s tricky to write down exactly what my job now entails. But I’m going to give it a go. I may, in the months after this post goes live, come back and add to it as I remember all I have missed!

So.. this is some of what I do.

• I edit reporters’ copy. To make sure it’s safe, meets house style, and has the right angle. I re-write it, hopefully not too much if at all – occasionally wholesale – where necessary. And I make sure if there are questions still to be asked or views still to be sought, that that’s done.
• I write news copy. If we’re short of a story and I’ve cracked the whip all I can, then it’s sometimes easier for me to ‘bash out a lead’ than it is for me to persuade, cajole or push a reporter to write more.
• I shoot video – then embed it into stories like this one about the Cowpie Show
• I take photos – and put galleries of my photos online like this one.
• I read all the copy on news and sports pages and make sure it’s legally safe before we go to press. Subs change things and write headlines. They aren’t always accurate headlines, and key information can be cut to make a story fit onto a page. Sometimes, on a busy deadline day, we’re all reading a lot faster than we’d like. I change headlines and copy generally, on the fly, as we hurtle towards deadline.
• I sign off on pages – sending them to press. After I’ve hit the button, it’s probably too late to get something back. It has to be right.
• I have oversight of the paper’s website and schedule probably around 50 stories a week – making sure they are all Google friendly (hyperlinked, SEO optimised, the right length, large stories are going up at peak viewing time etc) and that they look as appealing as possible (sites like canva.com help there).
• I keep an eye on social media and other news websites to try to ensure that if we ought to be reporting on something, we are.
• I keep a regular watch on our web stats – and try to hit wweb viewing targets with the resources I have while juggling the printed paper’s needs too.
• I hold regular news meetings with the reporters – at the start of the week to review what reporters have planned, and thereafter, to keep us all on track and make sure we all know what everyone is doing. I don’t want anyone writing a story I can’t use, nor two people writing the same thing!
• I run – with significant help – the paper’s social media presence.
• I keep a diary of court hearings and inquests, and scour those lists to make sure we miss as little as possible.
• I deal with complaints from the public, and liaise with IPSO (the press regulator) where necessary.
• I write the words on the billboards you see outside supermarkets, newsagents et al.
• I edit, source images for, and on occasion conduct interviews for and write entertainment copy.
• I source content from contributors
• I arrange payment for contributors – in those rare cases where we have a budget for such things
• I help design front pages, I try to be artistic and have fun – where appropriate, and ensure there’s appropriate gravitas where not. Time, as always, permitting.

A little digression on that final point, and a couple of mentions my paper got, and chats I had with the guys at journalism website HoldTheFrontPage

There was praise for Weekly brings back 70-year-old masthead for special edition.

That’s this:

And within a week of that, there was global reaction to ‘Stuck bottom’ NIB becomes splash after global interest.

That’s this:

And while some of you may be keen to praise the former and knock the latter – which I understand completely – which do you imagine garnered the most readers?

I’ve written, and edited, lots of front pages down the years.

You can find a selection of pages I’ve written here, and pages edited on my watch here.

Newspaper writing is surprisingly formulaic. You don’t have to be a great writer to be a good journalist. It helps, but when you are starting out, you have to dial back your ambition sometimes. Write ‘by the numbers’.

So I have a Noddy, small guide for trainee reporters. It’s stuff they ought to know, generally do know, but don’t always do. They take liberties with the way news is generally written, and unless they are really goo, it’s often a leap too far – or at least, they are leaping too soon.

This is it:

1. There needs to be an information download in the first two or three  paragraphs.

· Who are we talking about

· Where did this happen

· When did it happen

· Why did it happen

· How did it happen

· What happened

A thing happened in a place to a man.

This is who he is, when he did it, how he did it and why.

2. Your best quote – out of order if need be, comes next. It should be at least few sentences long ideally, not just one – more if it reads better.

John Smith, age here, job title here, of street name here, said: “Long quote goes here”.

3. The rest of the story flows next, generally quoting at least one other person.

4. Are we having a go at anyone? They need a right of reply. Is there an alternate view? Does it need to be put? Are we libelling anyone? Is there a defence (talk to editor!). Are we sure any facts we’re printing are true?

Putting together a newspaper is a bit like putting together a jigsaw. There’s the main piece (the lead), a couple of longer fillers (downpages) and a column of short stories down one side (nibs) generally. An average page might need a lead a downpage or two, and a column of three or four nibs.

Size guide

Nib – up to 150 / 200 words

Downpage – 200 – 350 words. Generally should have a photo.

Lead – 350 words and up, generally around 400/450, MUST have a photo. Before writing a lead ask, what photo am I sending with this? If there isn’t a photo, you may not have a lead.

If your lead is long, think -can I split part off and do a breakout?

Always ask – is there a “value added piece” I can do? A fact box or similar?