My First Splash

Yesterday I wrote the Gazette's splash.
It's my first so an epiphany.
I’ve written more emotive and I like to think, riveting prose.
But a splash’s a splash and whatever’s most newsworthy of the editor’s choice.
It’s all over the nationals this week so topical.
And at Enfield its unwritten, but an understood given, that we are on the pulse on what is and should be too.
The piece saw me locating and then running after a team of refuse collection people for quotes on deadline day and ringing up a photographer who was on another job to get down there a.s.a.p. to snap them in action. Energetic.
The story is too long for web but this what the headline said:
Amid fears of stinking rubbish lining our streets,
we are pleased to tell you plans for forthnightly rubbish collections are BINNED!

Mr E N Field

E N Field is a fictional character. I’m not sure exactly what he looks like. But he is along the lines of: white, middle class pensioner, and more satirical and cynical than might be immediately comfortable – specifically if he is talking about you.
There are three of us reporters on the two papers I write for: Enfield Advertiser and The Gazette. They both have different audiences so we get quite a wide bit of scope in terms of what goes where.
Some of the content overlaps but broadly speaking, the “Ads” is more the mainstream, tabloid, community paper. The "Gaz," is more formal, a tad serious perhaps. Very slick on design, with stylistic features reminiscent of the Daily Mail, or London’s Evening Standard. It’s for the more “mature,” reader. This is speaking in very general terms.
E N Field keeps a diary that is serialised in two extracts every week on the bottom of page 2 of The Gazette. It’s a reaction to the news. A comment on what’s been seen to be going on (off the record) at meetings, appearances and interactions between local public figures – specifically councillors and MP’s.
It is not bylined and we're not allowed to divulge who writes it. But it's a really popular and important section of the paper.
Our editor says that when he's away it's the only thing he worries about being done as it should.

The Fresher’s fare

The new job’s been a whirlwind. Almost three weeks into proceedings and I’m part of the furniture. What else could a newbie want than to blend in?
A newspaper is not a world in which one eases into things gently. It’s the nature of the business that you get in and get on – the phone, to that meeting, event, press conference, council meeting, launch, court hearing…unexpected circumstance, and so on.
Anyone that’s never worked on a newspaper will never really understand what it is like. I refer here to other journalists too.
We’re talking magazine journalists with longer deadlines, freelancers, feature writers on national dailys even – they might only write one piece per day.
The life of a news reporter is exceedingly different.
That pressure, the hectic-mania that fill you as you race to file for deadline, the buzz to be had when you get it all done can only be experienced by being on the newsdesk.
And when it’s done, there’s that sweet, sweet feeling of relief. This is when your editor tells you the final edition had gone to print.
You might get a 20 minute breather. This is when you and your colleagues have a power laze-around. I’m partial to hysterical giggles.
And then it starts all over again.
The only reason I spell all this out is because non-journalists won’t necessarily understand the mad desire to want to do this job. It’s relentless. It’s demanding. It’s not one that lets you get away with a botched job.
But there’s nothing else we’d rather get out of bed to do.

Marching into March

School’s out and my full-time reporting career kicks off next Monday March 5.
First though, we’re off to cover a protest today that will feature in our papers as an ongoing campaign against cut backs on Enfield's Chase Farm hospital. This is the BIGGEST story of the moment for us. Ten thousand people are expected.
We're all excited. I'm a bit nervous too, if only because I want to do a good job.