An insiders perspective on the Daily Mail
Discussion
TTwiggy said:
I have a colleague who used to write for the website. It's like a journalism sweat shop.
The pictures come in an the writers are given the angle for the piece to follow. Once they are briefed the clock is ticking and they have 20 minutes to write it up and get it uploaded.
People walk around the office with clipboards and stopwatches shouting at anyone who misses the deadline. There are no sub-editors so writers sub their own copy.
So that's why so much of the copy reads like it was written by a nine year old. The pictures come in an the writers are given the angle for the piece to follow. Once they are briefed the clock is ticking and they have 20 minutes to write it up and get it uploaded.
People walk around the office with clipboards and stopwatches shouting at anyone who misses the deadline. There are no sub-editors so writers sub their own copy.
TTwiggy said:
I have a colleague who used to write for the website. It's like a journalism sweat shop.
The pictures come in an the writers are given the angle for the piece to follow. Once they are briefed the clock is ticking and they have 20 minutes to write it up and get it uploaded.
People walk around the office with clipboards and stopwatches shouting at anyone who misses the deadline. There are no sub-editors so writers sub their own copy.
Is it like this?The pictures come in an the writers are given the angle for the piece to follow. Once they are briefed the clock is ticking and they have 20 minutes to write it up and get it uploaded.
People walk around the office with clipboards and stopwatches shouting at anyone who misses the deadline. There are no sub-editors so writers sub their own copy.
Bradgate said:
So that's why so much of the copy reads like it was written by a nine year old.
I think you will find it is a requirement. That's what the supervisors, editors carries an aura of skill, want and that's what they get. The paper is a celebrity blog with some news thrown in.The Mail was never much of a paper. What is a terrible shame is the state of the Telegraph. Once one of the greats and now nothing more than stuff pulled from the wires and padded. They've still got a columnist or two who is wort reading, and that cartoonist, but beyond that it has about as much clout as a freebee.
I know TV news and the internet have changed things forever and that things never stay the same, but it's a shame how the papers have become all but inconsequential. I used to patrol Fleet Street in the 70s and it used to buzz. I went into their offices a few times and you could sense the atmosphere of excitement. Most people who worked for them felt they were doing an important job, even down to the blokes who loaded the papers onto the vans.
I've walked down Bouverie Street and one of the workers has come out and handed me a paper, saying: "When this falls on Wilson's desk, he'll have a fit." I can't remember what it was about but as this would have been late 75 or early 76, there were any number of matters.
In the 70s there were a series of raids in and around the City where a group of police officers were complicit, this going very high in rank. Some officers used to feed the press with information as a way of battling it - now such actions are illegal. The SIO called everybody into the incident room and, with fury apparent, i.e. a lot of swearing, he said that he had ways of finding out who had given the info and if anyone did anything like it again, he'd personally see they were out of a job.
By the time I got into Fleet Street from the nick in Snow Hill, about 30 minutes or so - I was in no hurry - there were posters on the pavement saying: Senior detective threatens officers, and variations on that theme. A small, very small, victory for the straight guys.
One thing which never comes across on the films of the old printing presses was the noise they gave off. If you wanted to ask any of them a question it was best to pick a young 'un as from 45 and over, they were all deaf. You could feel the vibrations from outside. Dust would fall from the brickwork on start-up.
As they say, it's all changed now.
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