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Three months into my first job I had been praised for the way I covered one tricky story, and almost landed the paper in the libel court with a far simpler assignment. (For the Editor's reactions and how we got out of it, click here).
My career in paid journalism started at the Solihull News in August 1960. Most of the staff were trainees, under the tutelage of Chief Reporter Ian Gregory and the mild-mannered but unshakeable Editor Don Powis. Sharing an adjacent office on the top floor were the district reporters for the Birmingham Post & Mail, and the Birmingham-based Evening Dispatch. We couldn't have asked for a better environment in which to learn our trade. As we became trustworthy the two evening reporters would occasionally push a bit of linage our way, covering events they were too busy to handle for so many (old) pennies per line. We soon learned that we were paid for the number of lines published, not the amount we submitted. Our mentors practically wrote the stories in advance for us, and suggested a suitable length. "Writing to length" was a good discipline to learn. It taught us to respect the judgement of people who knew far more about newspapers than we did. All of us made mistakes which got into print. One colleague contrived to give every participant in a juicy court case the identity of someone else involved. Fortunately they all saw the funny side. If you'd like to add your funny/instructive recollections, email me: m and ep_AT_ang elfire _DOT_ com (removing spaces etc to make the address work it's an anti-spam thing). Links to other pages on this site. Top of this page. |