Hard News: Better, faster ... prettier
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Sub-editors are often a print publication's institutional memory. They know how to spell the unusual names, and the particular quirks of individual writers. Great subs are the soul of the publication. Outsourcing that duty to a sausage factory loses you so much.
Oh yes. When I worked at WNL it was the subs that basically kept the thing going. I'd head up from the computer room in the evening when I was supporting the Dom. The editor would be gone, the deputy would be going,and most of the reporters would be out the door. The core of the subs would be grinding work out, laying stuff out, fixing stories, and whatnot.
They were a very... unreconstructed lot. The Chief Sub of the day, Brett Webling, who looked a bit like Chris Knox's bigger, scarier brother, would be hunched over his keyboard, hammering away at it, then would pause, glare around the newsroom, and bellow, "Which of you useless cunts wrote this?"
You know the joke about New Yorkers using fuck as punctuation? Yeah, well, that was Brett, only he didn't use fuck. It wasn't offensive enough.
But I've seen the copy the reporters handed in, and I've seen what came out, and I'd support the notion the late shift subs floated over beer, wine, and cigarettes (smoking law? What's that?), which is they deserved most of the credit for any Quantas awards the paper won for reporting.
That time gave me, incidentally, one of the great (and I think unused ) headlines: "Like Rats From a Sinking Shipley"; and, seeing some of the notes going from the editor to the reporters, a healthy contempt for anyone claiming liberal media bias.
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I have a new word after reading the original post.
"Blogvertising"
It's where somebody tries to sell something in their blog posts.
;)
I'll just stick to selling my soul in mine.
$1.79 per gram
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They generally can't write headlines, standfirsts or captions either. It's basically a mess.
When I'm perusing the Stuff and Herald websites of a morning, my fiance is often subject to loud mutters about the quality of the editing. I mean, apostrophe misuse is present in headlines on a weekly basis. The only consolation is that I'm not paying to read it.
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(along with Chris Slane's cartoons)
Agreed!
I enjoyed Tom Scott's writing/cartoon in the Listener - but now I'm showing my age.
The Sports columns of Joseph Romanos were always worth a read, whereas Paul Lewis never really seems to say anything.
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We talk and talk until my head explodes
I turn on the news and my body froze
These braying sheep on my TV screen
Make this boy shout, make this boy scream
Going underground, I'm going underground
I'm going underground, I'm going undergroundOooh the beer swilling socialism of it all....anyone remember the the Cappuccino Kid ?
Either way...
The place I love is a million miles away...
RB's column in the listener was in a strange way one of the reasons why I chose NZ over Canada.....(Long story)
No regrets though -
Gotta say that I'm enjoying Matt Nippert's TV highlights. Nice turn of phrase.
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Oh yes - I only mentioned Matt because I noticed only in the last few weeks he's been doing it I've long enjoyed Fiona's turns of phrase too.Um, actually, I think you'll find Matt Nippert's been doing the Films on TV reviews and Fiona's still on TV week duties.
Fiona's pages are always the first bit of the Listener I turn to :)
Sorry to see Wide Area News go, Russell (I've been reading your various columns since you started with the Listener), but fair enough if you're not being paid what you're worth. I'd been meaning to write in to them about the repositioning of your column (pointless now) - I'm sure Diana Wichtel's TV review column should be returned to that spot.
I've been irritated by the change in direction since P Stirling took over - like other commenters it's often about the loss of writers (still missing Steve B; getting used to Paul Lewis but preferred Joseph Romanos), but what really gets me is the cover stories aimed at anxious baby boomers. Gets pretty tedious for us subscribers, especially when there are other articles more deserving of a cover in a current affairs mag (e.g. David Fisher's housing story).
Has anyone else noticed the photography has fallen by the wayside over the last little while? The covers are dull and same-y, and most of the photos used for articles seem to be stock images.
But ... despite all that, I still read the Listener almost cover to cover every week, I rely on the entertainment listings, and there really isn't anything else like it around. So I'm keeping my subscription.
Maybe you should put your hand up when it's time for a change of editor, Russell ;-)
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While we're noting those that are holding out against The Listener's repositioning as a lifestyle magazine, let's hear it for the diversions. The cryptic crossword and Take 5 were always my favourites (although contact has been irregular since moving to the US), and it's good to see them holding out against those symbols of middle-class baby-boom anxieties that are Sudoku and Kakuro -- evidence of decline under Stirling if ever it was needed.
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They were a very... unreconstructed lot. The Chief Sub of the day, Brett Webling, who looked a bit like Chris Knox's bigger, scarier brother, would be hunched over his keyboard, hammering away at it, then would pause, glare around the newsroom, and bellow, "Which of you useless cunts wrote this?"
Excellent. That made me laugh out loud.
But I've seen the copy the reporters handed in, and I've seen what came out, and I'd support the notion the late shift subs floated over beer, wine, and cigarettes (smoking law? What's that?), which is they deserved most of the credit for any Quantas awards the paper won for reporting.
Or editorial or column writing. They wouldn't be the first subs to mutter darkly about that ...
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Um, actually, I think you'll find Matt Nippert's been doing the Films on TV reviews and Fiona's still on TV week duties.
I knew that!!
:)
I never check anything.
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Maybe instead of adding a comment editing facility to Publicaddress you could employ retired newspaper subs to spruce up everyone's typing, grammar and factual accuracy.
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It has got less satisfying, I agree, but I just can't bring myself to buy the TV Guide.
I don't know why anyone would pay to get their TV listings on paper these days. There's several online.
The Sports columns of Joseph Romanos were always worth a read
Hear hear. He has tremendous knowledge, and always used to make stories about sports that I didn't care about, interesting.
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I don't know why anyone would pay to get their TV listings on paper these days. There's several online.
Of course, Kyle, there is always that option. But there is nothing quite like sitting down in a comfy place - in my case, outside, with a ciggie - and perusing . You can't peruse, in the old fashioned sense, on a computer. Flicking through the pages etc - large part of it for me.
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Yes, and the sad state of freelance pay rates extends beyond written output to content in general. Photographers are really feeling the pinch as they compete with ridiculously cheap micro stock agencies to get paid a fair rate (or paid at all) for their work. Many editors offer payment in the form of a by-line and 'prestige' of publication, and that's about it.
It's much less stress to do it for the love of it, and any payment is a bonus. To make a living off it must be hard work indeed.
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I don't know why anyone would pay to get their TV listings on paper these days. There's several online.
Not that I've actively subscribed to the Listener for some years (I found reading a few of the columns from multiple back issues at parents & grandparents places satisfactory), but there is a lot to be said for seeing the TV listings in advance, and having intelligent commentary guiding you to things to watch.
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Russell - why are you actually leaving? I presume it's ideological differences over it's current state / direction?
I appreciate you may be unable to fully say so given that Fiona works there, but feel free to be euphimistic. -
ultimately we still need to know what's happening, and what's on the telly.
It has got less satisfying, I agree, but I just can't bring myself to buy the TV Guide
But ... despite all that, I still read the Listener almost cover to cover every week, I rely on the entertainment listings, and there really isn't anything else like it around. So I'm keeping my subscription
Yup, what they said - but when I get a shiny new freeview box with a PVR to tell me what's on, that might just be the last nail in the Listener's coffin.
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Not me, a PVR won't have Fiona telling me what to look out for (and I'm not sure I want to break the habit of going through next week's tv listings with a highlighter). A shiny new freeview box does seem quite appealing though, I haven't seen Media 7 yet.
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(and I'm not sure I want to break the habit of going through next week's tv listings with a highlighter).
OMG - I am enormously glad I am not the only person who does this, Venetia. I was a little embarrassed to say that that's the main reason I need the tv listings in print form.......
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Heh, I have a very poor memory and no fear of being uncool. Better that than kicking myself for missing something fab...
Funnily enough when I read the comments threads on here, you're probably the person I agree with most often - guess we have a few things in common (not the ciggies though!).
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But the deeper story, as I said, is what's happened to freelance pay rates in general in the last 15 years, while largely foreign print media owners have pocketed the returns. It's bad.
Ah, you've never submitted a story to Pavement then? Barney paid me with a byline and a copy of the mag when printed! Said that was his 'standard' fee ... :)
But there is nothing quite like sitting down in a comfy place and perusing . You can't peruse, in the old fashioned sense, on a computer. Flicking through the pages etc - large part of it for me.
oh gawd, you're not one of those people who prints out their emails so they can read them are you?
Photographers are really feeling the pinch as they compete with ridiculously cheap micro stock agencies to get paid a fair rate (or paid at all) for their work.
Is this another dig at the government?
Russell - why are you actually leaving? ... I appreciate you may be unable to fully say so given that Fiona works there, but feel free to be euphimistic.
Have they dumbed down so much that they can't read between the euphenisms?
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oh gawd, you're not one of those people who prints out their emails so they can read them are you?
Ah, no, I'm not. But then, being the sad pathetic print reading soul I am, I don't get many personal emails, so that doesn't enter the equation.
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My father, bless him, prints out web pages, sticks them in an envelope and posts them to me.
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Hi all. Pamela Stirling asked me to post the following:
I see in the postings on your blog that someone mentions that Steve Braunias was sacked from the Listener. That's not correct. Nor is it correct, as the Critic article claims, that he won a constructive dismissal case. ( It is not correct, either, for that matter, that I told Dave Hansford to change the tone of his column, as claimed by the Critic article. In fact, we facilitated his viewpoint by helping ensure his columns were in publishable form without errors. )
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In fact, we facilitated his viewpoint by helping ensure his columns were in publishable form without errors.
I'm loving this quote! Facilitated them right out of the building. Without any of the errors those climate experts pointed out!
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It was the Critic article that said Braunias & Romanos were sacked.
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