Sunday working is an odd thing at a regional newspaper. As a reporter you spend all day hoping nothing will happen, because you are covering the whole region and could really do without getting up from in front of the Hollyoaks 12-hour marathon and leave your cosy Bridgnorth home to drive to Llandrindod Wells while the rest of your family starts to tuck into roast beef and Yorkshire pud.
As a news editor you also spend all day hoping nothing will happen, then getting bored if nothing does, then realising something better had so you have something for the next day’s paper.
Another thing the duty news ed must do is trawl through the Sunday papers. All of them. Now, you know how many pointless suppliments come with, say, The Times - Lifestyle, Money, Travel, Entertainment, Women’s section, Sport, Kids, Pets, Socks (I made that last one up). Imagine having to go through all that 20 times over.
Then you get the tabloids and their celeb-packed mags. After that the Hollyoaks omnibus looks positively high brow.
Still, things I learned from the tabloids this weekend (it was quite quiet, incidently): Katy Hill should wear a bra, checks are in, and for a few quid I could “get the look” of Colleen, Helen Mirren, or somebody off Casualty I’d never heard of.
And apparently I do put my career before motherhood.
Eek!
David Burrows is National News Editor at the Shropshire Star. Comment on David’s blog by clicking here
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