A busy day at the Society of Editors conference in Belfast yesterday included a session on ‘Maintaining standards’, so it was sweet to see a missing apostrophe in the following notice displayed to delegates on two huge screens for 15 minutes.
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Newcastle Chronicle editor Darren Thwaites told a great story during a SoE reception last night.
Recalling his days as deputy editor at the Evening Express in Aberdeen, Darren described a colleague’s visit to a newsagents on a remote Scottish island and his request to buy a copy of the sister Press and Journal title.
With a canny look, the newsagent asked: “Would that be today’s Journal or yesterday’s Journal you require?”
“Today’s, please,” answered the puzzled hack.
“Well you’ll have to come back tomorrow then,” came the deadpan reply.
…….
Talking of the Press and Journal, editor Damian ‘Dennis the Menace’ Bates left conference smiling after winning what was said to be a £40 bet for charity.
Just before he walked on stage to speak yesterday afternoon, his drinking pals bet him that he couldn’t use the words ‘kumquat’ and ‘t’interweb’.
As those present will remember, he quickly used both words in some sort of strange layman’s context, and “easy money!” were his next utterances back at the bar.
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What a generous lot delegates were with the Journalists’ Charity collection boxes on tables at last night’s Annual Gala Dinner.
A grand total of £1,813.02 was declared at the end of the evening… now come on, chaps, who put tuppence in?
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Finally, a quick note on the make up of the 202 registered delegates, speakers and hosts attending this year’s conference.
Around 30 were serving editors of recognised UK newspapers, broadcasters, news agencies and Internet sites; of these, 21 were regional newspaper editors; and just four were national newspaper editors – two from The Independent and i, and two from the Irish and Scottish editions of the Daily Mail.
There were a number of working journalists, especially from the Belfast Telegraph and other local media, but at least 60pc were lawyers, academics, marketing executives, retired editors and assorted sponsors.
Given Leveson, impending state regulation, Newsnight, ethics and all, I just thought those statistics were worth noting.
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Ahhhh those crazy editors and their crazy japes.
Kumquat… hilarious!
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Well Steve, it’s clearly been a while since a costs-crazy MD was breathing down your neck, or you are suffering from too many pints in the Dog and Duck with Damian (aren’t there any other characters over there?).
Not surprising that most of the working editors there are from regionals. For every one of them, there’ll be a dep or assistant back at base working his/her guts out. As for the rest, all the weekly editors who would love to have the time and the funds to attend, I’m sure. My MD would not even consider it, especially at year end, and as for having the time…I need 12 hours a day just to get the bloody paper out.
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@InTheClubStyle I think you’ll find that is a real sweeping generalisation. I’m deputy to a regional daily editor who couldn’t be more hands-on. In my experience long gone are the days of absentee ‘figurehead’ editors who spend their lives on jollies or on the golf course, pressing the flesh and attending conferences like this one. Decreased staffing levels mean that we all – and that definitely includes my ‘working editor’ boss – have to knuckle down to get the job done. The reality for us is long days and a lot of hard work for everybody concerned.
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Ready for Change accuses me of a “sweeping generalisation” that I haven’t made. I wasn’t saying that daily or regional editors were workshy, or liked to go off on jollies, or were absentee figureheads. Heck, I worked on a huge daily for 14 years so I know what it’s like.
My point was that Steve Dyson bemoaned the lack of real, live editors at the conference and the reason, I believe, is not hard to find. Most weekly editors are too snowed under, or too cowed by cost-cuitting regimes, to even consider attending an event like that, beneficial as it might be.
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For the record, my note on the stats was not intended to frown at editors themselves for not attending; I’m only too aware that arms have to be twisted at plc groups for approval to go to the SoE conference. My point is that owners should be more interested and more committed to ensuring their editors are fully up to date with the industry. To be fair, although only 30 editors attended, the fact that 21 of these were regional newspapers is encouraging – and independents were well represented within this figure. That hardly any nationals bothered is worrying… and that probably is in the editors’ own gift. Was it too far? Is concentrating at the SoE too much like hard work? Discuss…
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