Diary of a Magazine Editor (8)

August 13, 2010
Jumbo

Alex Wade puts his second issue of Cornwall Today to bed – and breathes a sigh of relief.

Only an editor knows the feeling. There you are, approaching press day, contentedly sailing along, liaising with the designers and proof-reader, checking copy and page layouts, serene in the knowledge that the magazine will not be published with any blank pages. And then, eureka (but not in a nice way): you discover that there are, in fact, two blank pages.

This happened to me six days before press day for the September issue, when I alighted upon the unfortunate fact that Cornwall Today’s ‘What’s On’ slot had nothing in it. The slot is a not a listings page but rather a two-page interview with, say, a performer in a current show, or a profile of a contemporaneous event. To my horror, a final perusal of the flat-plan with the estimable Ed Andrews, the magazine’s main designer, revealed that while we had ably accommodated all manner of ads and what I believe are a number of interesting features, we’d forgotten to schedule anything in ‘What’s On’.

When I say ‘we’, I mean, of course, yours truly. What, though, to do?

Fortuitously, Jonny Nance, secretary of the St Ives Jumbo Association, had been in touch with me earlier in the week. He’d been keen for the magazine to cover the theft of the Association’s handmade trailer, which I’d duly done. But in talking to Jonny, it struck me that a feature on the Jumbos – fishing craft whose Cornish heyday was the 1880s, and which Jonny has revived – would be perfect for the magazine. Was there, though, a peg suitable for the ‘What’s On’ remit?

Mercifully, there was. The St Ives Boats in the Bay festival returns on Saturday September 11, and the Jumbos – so named by way of ironic juxtaposition with London Zoo’s elephant of the same name, a major draw in the 1880s – will be taking centre-stage. But how to get the feature written?

Again fortuitously, the Jumbos were being sailed last weekend. Jonny confirmed that I could join them, so too that a photographer could come along too. But work commitments meant that while I could make the sail, it’d sit better to edit a piece rather than write it. Lady luck again came to the rescue: Caroline Davidson, a freelance whose work is excellent, was in the area and happy to climb aboard and take on writing duties.

By Monday morning, I’d edited a nice piece filed promptly by Caroline and we’d secured some excellent photographs by Mike Newman. The ‘What’s On’ pages were filled – and filled rather well. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that the resulting feature is one of the strongest in the forthcoming September issue.

It’ll be on sale next Thursday, August 19, so readers can decide whether they agree then. Meantime, with press day happily behind me, my thoughts have turned to October’s Cornwall Today and beyond.  And guess what? I’ve filled the ‘What’s On’ section already.

To subscribe to Cornwall Today, click here. For more information on the exquisite replica Jumbo boats, including how to become a member of the St Ives Jumbo Association, click here.

 

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From the inside of the maze, ethically outwards

February 9, 2012

Curious times in the media; strange days at The Times.

Would ‘Dacre Cards‘ – the system of licensing journalists proposed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre – have prevented the embarrassment now palpable at the Times over the NightJack story?

Times editor James Harding’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry seemed heartfelt and contrite, albeit that the paper’s former long-serving and much-respected lawyer, Alastair Brett, seems to have been, er, rather dropped in it. Clearly, mistakes were made with regard to NightJack by young reporter Patrick Foster who, once he had hacked into NightJack’s account and thus discovered his identity, then embarked on a quest to expose it via legitimate methods. This, as Inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC put it, was “rather like working from the inside of the maze out”.

But had Foster been licensed via a Dacre Card, would this unsavoury episode in the Times’s history have been avoided?

We suspect not. A raft of laws were in existence at precisely the time when many News of the World journalists seemed to believe that they were entitled to hack any phone they liked. Those laws forbade them from doing so, and yet made no difference. Aside from the obvious objection to them – that they will squeeze out freelancers and citizen journalists – Dacre Cards would simply amount to something to circumvent.

What is really required is an ethical shake-up, from top to bottom. Society generally – not just journalists – needs a sense that some things are just plain wrong.

Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.