Here’s a picture that captures in time perfectly a newsroom that didn’t know what was coming.
Seven reporters in a district office of the Express & Star in West Bromwich taken around the time of the Millennium. You can see the desktop Apple machines, the tide of newspapers, letters and council agenda papers that filled gaps on desks. In the corner of the room, a portable TV with Ceefax keeps an eye on the cricket score.
It was the newsroom I worked in from 1998 to 2005.
I know all of those reporters in the picture. I loved working with all of them. From left to right in newspaper caption fashion, that’s Jo, Nina, Paul K looking straight at the camera, Anne with her back to the shot, chief reporter Ken there in the distance, the late Marion and then Paul F.
What did a good newsroom teach you?
You learned by osmosis. People rang in with stories so you overheard how others perfected their phone interview technique. ‘Getaway,’ Ken would exclaim down the phone at least three times a day to coax out more information.
Or you could bounce an idea off a colleague. Or you could pick their brains. Or they could cadge a phone number off you.
I’m not being sentimental in saying that people learned far more by being in a room with more senior colleagues.
Good times
When it was good, it was very, very good. When it was bad the Express & Star was an indescribably unpleasant place to work. The culture that emanated from parts of the Wolverhampton head office then was often vile.
But I much prefer to remember the good memories.
Dave, who sat next to Ken at the back of the office, would crack the same jokes over and over. ‘They’ll never sell any ice creams going at that speed,’ he’d say everytime a siren went past. ‘I’ll get this,’ when his phone rang. Bored after deadline, Dave would embellish stories, stir the pot or create rumour.
He should have been throttled but we put up with it because it was Dave.
See that clock on the wall?
That clock ruled my life. First edition deadline, the shedder – the schedule – Dudley edition, Wolverhampton edition, Sandwell edition, afternoon schedule and five other edition’s deadlines.
See that fax machine under the window on the left?
That was where press releases were sent. We didn’t have an email address or the internet. The Victorian management at Queen Street thought we’d just mess about if we had those. They also thought that the internet was a fad which just like CB radio would fade away.
What didn’t we know was coming?
Well, nine years after that picture was taken the print works at the back of the building closed. The newsroom limped on with fewer staff until that too closed.
I count myself very lucky to have worked in the finest office of the biggest selling regional newspaper when newspapers were a cornerstone.
Seeing this picture – thanks Paul Pickard – made me smile.