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Snowbound journalists produce paper from home

Snowbound journalists from a weekly newspaper beat the wintry weather by managing to produce the title from their homes.

Heavy snow overnight last Thursday and early on Monday left the Midweek Herald’s newsroom at Exeter Airport deserted, as staff were unable to get there.

But thanks to technology, editor Belinda Bennett, who remains snowed in at Lyme Regis, was able to use her office computer from home to ensure the Archant South West title was printed as usual on Tuesday.

She was helped by sports editor Lee Glanville and reporter Chris Carson who were also trapped by the snow and worked from home, with the team managing to hit deadline with five minutes to spare.

  • The view from editor Belinda Bennett’s hilly home shows the extent of the snow.
  • Belinda said: “I was snowed in on Friday and worked from home. Unfortunately, it then snowed again early Monday, heavily, and I knew, living on a hill in Lyme Regis, I could be stuck for days. In fact, I’m still stuck! The ice is pretty horrendous.

    “Luckily, I am linked to my computer at our Exeter Airport newsroom via remote control. I was able to manipulate that computer using a laptop from the comfort and warmth of my sitting room.

    “It takes longer to sub a page using this technology, but it was worth its weight in gold.

    “Sports editor Lee Glanville helped me size pictures and draw lines around the adverts. She was working from her home in Ivybridge, Devon.

    “Reporter Chris Carson worked from his home, in Axminster, Devon. Together, we managed to hit deadline with five minutes to spare.”

    The team also updated the paper’s website with stories from their homes.

    7 comments

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    • December 23, 2010 at 11:18 am
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      Wow! People able to connect remotely – you will be able to get money out of a hole in the wall next

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    • December 23, 2010 at 11:28 am
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      Don’t knock it, Howes – I spent years trying to persuade Northcliffe to let me do it. It’s sadly not the same as an ATM. The page makeup programs use a huge amount of processing power so they said I would need ultra-high-speed broadband, (which I DEFINITELY haven’t got) plus a dedicated connection (which they weren’t prepared to supply)to upload the stuff. It never happened.

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    • December 23, 2010 at 11:30 am
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      David, You might be able to get money out of a hole in the wall, but getting a pay rise out of management, that’s entirely a different proposition, especially when you work in a newsroom with so many spineless so and sos that accept all the crap dumped on them from on high.

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    • December 23, 2010 at 1:30 pm
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      Erm, Hilary, you don’t need the page-making program on your laptop or home computer. These days you just connect to some central server thingy that does. Hey, Sly Dig, nice swerve to change the subject. The technology as described does sound a bit steam-driven so well done to Belinda and her team.

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    • December 23, 2010 at 1:40 pm
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      Working from home? Dont give greedy firms like Newsquesk and JP ideas. They’d love to shut a few more newspaper offices if only they didnt have such stone-age IT systems.

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    • December 23, 2010 at 2:22 pm
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      Hilary? The program runs centrally. You only use your home PC to access the system. Technology moves on! Or maybe it doesn’t at Archant?

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    • December 24, 2010 at 12:48 pm
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      Mr Howes: Try telling that to my IT department! In any case, the broadband speed aspect still stands. When you’re out in the sticks with a broadband speed of sometimes less than 1 meg, you wouldn’t stand a chance of making a deadline.

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