This is a thread from the Fleet
Street forum's previous incarnation on Compuserve. It was started and archived by Harry
Sigerson. Unfortunately it doesn't translate particularly well to the online environment
because it has lost its threading but if you read through you should get some useful
information and some idea of what the old place was like.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : ALL 14/05/98 15:55 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35042
Is there a best or preferred way of submitting copy to a commissioning editor (or to a
solicited editor - which is more likely)?
Maybe this varies depending on the editor? Maybe faxed copy is the way to do it or perhaps
nowadays you send an email covering note that has the work (say a Word document)
accompanying it as an attached file?
It may seem all too obvious but it would be good to hear from folk that do it as a matter
of course.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 14/05/98 16:08 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35043
Certainly at News International the less re-keying required the better. Email is
relatively new here and many people submit by dialling in direct to us. I would imagine
that Word files would be universally disliked and plain text would be far better.
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062 15/05/98 15:14 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35097
>Email is relatively new here and many people submit by dialling in direct to us. <
Dominic,
Thanks for the reply. Plain text, that's clearly the best route by general
consensus.
I am probably missing something. Re-keying is to be avoided at the far end and email is
relatively new. So if I understand "...submit by dialling in direct..." one can
send copy directly into News International's system if you have a contacting number?
You write the piece and fire it straight to someone at NI; no need for email? Is
that about it?
This is like pre-email days when you had to send data having first set up your
modem to use the same protocol that you had to know was being used at the far end. Hmmm?
Now I am sure I am missing something, I thought this was what email and ISP software was
meant to circumvent? Though having said that if that is what NI do then they'll have
similar software in their system -- and naturally the plain text is the least likely to be
mishandled.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 15/05/98 15:22 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35098
Yes you dial up a special number with your modem and upload the piece. The paper can give
you instructions on the details. There is also Mercury which I think is still in use.
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062 16/05/98 15:59 pm
From : Michael Kenward, 100015,1021 #35180
>> I would imagine that Word files would be universally disliked and plain text
would be far better. <<
My experience supports your assumption. Even ASCII, or plain text, has its problems. I
always back up an e-mail version with a fax, so that they can look at the $ and £
symbols.
Word files are not only useless when they hit an ATEX system, they can also harbour a
nasty virus.
MK
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 14/05/98 21:41 pm
From : Victoria Elliott, 101546,3062 #35053
I e-mail in just about everything.
I send it as plain text by cutting and pasting it into an e-mail. I recommend against
sending any attachments in any word processing programme. You never know what their e-mail
programme or their computers will do to it on the other side and there's nothing worse
than downloading a whole file that is all code.
Ciao
Victoria
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Victoria Elliott, 101546,3062 15/05/98 15:13 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35094
Message text written by Victoria Elliott
>I send it as plain text by cutting and pasting it into an e-mail. <
Victoria,
Thanks for the reply. From yours and the others it appears that plain text wins.
I take it that the act of cutting and pasting something (from say a piece written in Word)
from a word processor into say CS' email facility changes it to 'plain text'?
That's probably a daft question. I am sure I have something on this subject stashed away
for reference.
Thanks again, Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 14/05/98 21:41 pm
From : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 #35054
Harry
At the Express there are three ways. Fax- which has to be rekeyed by copytakers. Dictation
to copytakers and Mercury Newslink, whihc goes direct on to our computers. Soon we will
add a fourth - email. Like Dominic, I think the less rekeying the better.
Simon
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 14/05/98 22:08 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35057
>>Fax- which has to be rekeyed by copytakers. Dictation to copytakers<<
Most papers are trying to cut down their dependence on copytakers - witness the recent PA
deal. So I would imagine that finding another way from the start would be a good thing for
a new contributor to do, brownie point-wise.
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 15/05/98 15:13 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35095
Simon,
Thanks for the reply. I guess it's much the same with the Express as with
Dominic's News International. Mercury Newslink must be the name of the Hardware/Software
system that is your in-house IT system - stating the obvious -- and sending copy by this
third route is the only one that will minimise re-keying and speed up editing.
The puzzle for me is how do I submit plain text copy to a particular end point.
Let's say that I have some copy, a piece saved in plain text to a file. It has been done
to the pattern succinctly described in John Diamond's
reply, so it is self-identifying. I would need to know how many different addresses in the
MN system there were to which it could be sent and any protocol that has to be used to see
that it gets to the right one. Perhaps
there is a standard instruction sheet that a contributor can get. The fourth method,
email, yet to be implemented with the Express has the strength (and weakness) that stuff
sent in is there to be retrieved by the addressee who knows all about how things run
in-house. What John says about editors not always retrieving email is true about most of
us. Being the only one that can access the email does not put you under the cosh as would
copy sent by MN directly to the correct department for all to see.
There is also that minor difficulty that you are usually prevented from editing
received email -- okay, you can copy it to another file and then get into it.
It is interesting how some organisations come to email later.
Harry. (Simon, if this gets to you with lots of strange errors, I'm sorry. I am having
untold trouble with CS 3.0.4)
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 15/05/98 23:15 pm
From : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 #35119
Harry
As far as i understand Mercury (which is not very), it is a commercially available system
subscribed to quite widely and compatile with various newspaper systems (people used it
when I was at the Sunday Times, I seem to recall). A lot of agencies and regional corrs
seem to use it to send copy.
There is a chap in teh Express copy-taking section (soon to be closed down, alas)
who knows all about it and has sorted it out for one of my regualr contributors.
Simon
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 15/05/98 23:37 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35122
Simon and Harry,
mercury has a very good press person, whose name I've forgotten, but she'll come round and
sit on your lap while you set it up.
J
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 16/05/98 15:25 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35167
Simon,
you have confirmed what was coming across from the topic replies that Mercury is a general
service. Probably designed to handle all the inconsistencies that are there in all the
different systems and boxes -- PCs, Apples, Windows, Unix.
A closing copy-taking section implies that that chore is being done in some other way at
the Express. At least it looks that way to me but I don't know a lot about the inner
workings of papers. If such a section has always been a part of them in the past and isn't
needed so much today, contributor's efforts with their own hardware must be
short-circuiting their input directly to the subs.
The ease with which this forum operates seems to point the way. You've done a piece and
'from experience' (that all-encompassing phrase) you know to whom it should be sent. You
have his/her email address so that's where it goes. You also have the fax number so you
send a short reminder note simply saying the piece on... is there for him to see. Long
live one's ISP.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 16/05/98 15:48 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35173
>>A closing copy-taking section implies that that chore is being done in some other
way at the Express<<
The reason, I believe, that the Express (along with most of the other nationals) has
contracted the PA to do the task for them more cheaply from a shed in Wetherby.
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 17/05/98 19:17 pm
From : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 #35238
Harry
The closure of copy-taking is becasue PA has moved into the market and has set up a big
shed in somwherre like Dewsbury, where copy-taking will be handled for all papers that
want to subscribe. We all await the first exclsuive to end up at the wrong paper.
S
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 17/05/98 22:34 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35250
>>We all await the first exclsuive to end up at the wrong paper.<<
Won't be a News International exclusive. We're keeping our copytakers (for the moment at
least).
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062 17/05/98 23:30 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35259
Dominic?
Really? There was some talk of training them all up as subs at some point. (If you
ever come across a copy taker called Karen would you give her my best?)
J
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,103317/05/98 23:47 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35265
Well they haven't survived totally intact and there will be some redundancies (but all
voluntary, if possible). But there was a big debate about going into the PA thing and I
think a lot of people regard it as something of a victory that it was possible to persuade
the powers-that-be to keep it going in-house.
I will make sure Karen (who I don't know, but I know her boss) gets the message.
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Simon Hinde, 106220,217 18/05/98 12:54 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35281
Simon,
I don't know which I value more, the great information that you get from the forum
or the slightly satircal pessimism.
>>...a big shed in somwherre like Dewsbury, ..." Dominic's shed is in Wetherby.
I'll show my ignorance again. The initials PA have been used a couple of times but I
haven't figured it out? Help.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 18/05/98 13:28 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35282
PA = The Press Association.
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 19/05/98 19:04 pm
From : Michael Kenward, 100015,1021 #35399
PA = piss artists
MK
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Michael Kenward, 100015,1021 20/05/98 18:01 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35452
I believe it. You could use the forum to provide a list of most favoured pubs in London.
The memory of all those lovely bitters from my London days floods back with each pub name.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 20/05/98 20:43 pm
From : Michael Kenward, 100015,1021 #35466
Sadly, Harry, the theme vandals have been in at too many pubs. The White Swan, just off
Covent Garden, has gone Irish.
Just round the corner The Lamb and Flag, thank god, still has the same tatty lino and
stained ceiling that it had in the '70s. Last time I was there, several parties of
Americans came in clutching their handbooks. Took a quick look around and walked out.
Fortunately, they have covered the alley out to the gents.
MK
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Michael Kenward, 100015,1021 21/05/98 11:07 pm
From : John Kerr, 106565,3151 #35500
>> Fortunately, they have covered the alley out to the gents. <<
- sadly too it seems you can find nowhere these days to stand at a gents urinal and look
up for a glimpse of shooting stars, just as our ancestors must have done all those
millennia ago. (mind you, the beer's better now)
John K
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Kerr, 106565,3151 21/05/98 13:38 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35511
I thought that the rurals did this, as the stars shone through some tree's leaves, to the
sound of the bark being being contentedly wetted. For city fellas, determined to bring
down the wall by rotting the brickwork, you have to concentrate on the task in hand, so to
speak.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Kerr, 106565,3151 21/05/98 19:34 pm
From : Michael Kenward, 100015,1021 #35538
>> - sadly too it seems you can find nowhere these days to stand at a gents urinal
and look up for a glimpse of shooting stars, <<
Much to the relief of the nation's shoe menders.
MK
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Kerr, 106565,3151 23/05/98 06:50 pm
From : Tim Conroy, 100747,470 #35663
>(mind you, the beer's better now)<
?????? Explain...
Tim
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Tim Conroy, 100747,470 25/05/98 18:58 pm
From : John Kerr, 106565,3151 #35740
Tim
>> >(mind you, the beer's better now)< ?????? Explain... <<
I'm thinking of the days of yore when all a poor fella had to drink was unflavoured ale.
At least we have something called hop-essence these days.
John K
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Michael Kenward, 100015,1021 21/05/98 13:38 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35512
I like a man who has his priorities clearly defined.
His aesthetics -- <<still has the same tatty lino>>
Practicalities -- <<they have covered the alley out to the gents>>
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 15/05/98 23:23 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35120
Harry,
*Plain Text: is, as you surmise, ASCII text. In other words you have access to a-z and
A-Z, 0-9, all punctuation, most of the signs above the numbers (but not usually pounds
sterling) and an assortment of rules, blocks, spaces and carriage returns. What you don't
have are details of font, type size, margins or graphics. Neither can you style the words;
to show a word or phrase in italics use (ital) before and (unital) after. The same goes
for (bold) (unbold) and (underline) (ununderline). A very few systems allow you to send
style details but you're normally better off sticking with (ital) and the rest and letting
the subs deal with the rest. Generally speaking it's wise to turn over twice between pars
given that without any indent it's sometime hard to see where a par ends.
*House systems. The Times, the Guardian and the Telegraph have special house systems to
allow hacks to send in copy. Associated used to have one, but I'm not sure of it's still
around. Usually this involves prefacing your text with something like (in the case of the
Times) [slslug[ququeue-basket[ib[bt where you need to know the codes for the various
departments to replace queue-basket.
Theoretically, if you knew these you could get unsolicited copy straight onto the
editors' screens (which is why I've left them out). You also need to know the letters to
end the copy with. The Guardian and the Telegraph have a rather different system which
asks you to respond to automaticaly generated lines once you've logged on. The reason I
mention these is because they all use the square bracket as a special code to indicate
that you're about to give a command to the system. Use square brackets in the text and you
may cut off the transmission.
*Most comms packages usually offer two ways to send stuff - as a file or as text. The
latter is sometimes referred to as 'send message'. All it's doing is taking a screen like
the one you're looking at now and typing a pre-written message onto it.
* Mercury isn't a software package but an ancient transmission system operated by the late
mercury and now by Cable and Wireless. You have to be a member - or work for somebody who
is - before you can use it because it demands that you log on before you can use it. When
you join you get a book listing the addresses (series of numbers) of all the departments
of all the national and many regional papers.
john
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 16/05/98 15:24 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35166
John,
Yes, that fits. There was a time, not too long ago, when CompuServe couldn't handle files
and you had to use various coding/decoding programmes. There was a good one, a shareware
written by an American (living in Switzerland for the last twenty-odd years). The whole
thing swung around, 7-bit transmission.(that could handle ASCII) and 8-bit which was
needed for the
larger instruction sets on classier word processing packages. His program(me) had one neat
(literally) facility. It stripped-out all the transmission junk
that comes at the start of emails and which you usually leave insitu when you save it. I
don't use it anymore Compuserve's coding/decoding does the business on any binary files
that I have to send such as drawings. Most folk, I'd say virtually everybody, don't need
all that routing information you get with your email messages -- it would be great to have
it culled automatically. There's something for CS to incorporate in the next issue of CS
4.0
I like working in Word, for one thing I can use a clear Times New Roman font on a very
pale green background to ease the eyes; and still get it into 'plain text' by the way you
save. So remembering your tips about the (ital) (unital), not using square brackets and a
couple of carriage returns to signal an indent is still on to present in plain text.
The stuff on *house systems* was interesting. That you can get directly onto an editor's
screen or indeed anyone's, I still find amazing. From the editor's viewpoint it's more
likely to be scary than amazing.
The Guardian and Telegraph route looks like a well known journalist would be given a
password and so have a direct route to an editor. That makes a lot of sense and gives good
all round control. His stuff gets to editor quickest whereas the email copy and
reminder/fax approach will be looked at last. This seems reasonable
particularly when you bring in deadlines and peaks in work load.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 17/05/98 17:49 pm
From : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,3705#35233
You DO need routing information (headers, they're called) on email any time there is a
problem with delivery. That information is also the only way a user can complain to the
source about junk email. Stripping them would be very unwise. Most email software has a
setting whereby you don't have to see them unless you need to.
wg
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,3705 18/05/98 12:54 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35280
>Most email software has a setting whereby you don't have to see them unless you need
to.<
Wendy,
I only use CS 3.0.4 for email (when it isn't crashing). Does it have that header hiding
facility?
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 18/05/98 21:10 pm
From : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,3705#35323
I don't know, I'm afraid. I loathe it so much I never use it.
wg
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 14/05/98 23:07 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35060
Harry,
E-mail and fax simultaneously - fax because a) some editors are still none too bright
about retrieving their e-mail b)some companies have their e-mail systems tied in with
confusing intranet systems which don;t always work (Conde Nast, this means you) and c)
most editors are still happiest reading sopy formatted the old fashioned way.*
J
*The old fashioned way: double spaces, one side of paper, wide margins, name+phone
number+plus catchline+page number at the top of each sheet, 'More' at the bottom, 'ends'
at the end. I know that some of these habits are no longer necessary now that folios don;t
get split between waiting typesetters (I don't bother not running pars over the page any
more even though that's one of the things a word processor makes easy) but a habit is a
habit.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 15/05/98 08:58 pm
From : Jay Rayner, 100615,1463 #35070
Completely concurr with John, particularly on formatting of hard copy.
One other point - if it's a new outlet, the very best way to file the copy every now and
then is in person. Tell them you just happen to be passing by - even if you're not - and
that you can give them a disk. I think it makes a big difference if a commissioner is
forced to clock your face You stop being an anonymous voice down the phone, start building
a relationship etc. Good long
term strategy.
Jay
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Jay Rayner, 100615,1463 15/05/98 10:48 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35077
Jay,
Damn right. In the early days I used to take a piece into the ST Travel section which was
right at the end of the building and meant walking through every other section of the
paper. Taking the copy in meant a conversation which would more or less automatically get
round to 'where next?' out of politeness as much as anything else, but it also meant I
walked past every
other commissioning editor. As I got to know them it meant I could often pick up two or
three pieces on a visit.
J
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 16/05/98 09:23 pm
From : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,3705#35137
I got a lot of work that way, too -- take the copy in to one magazine, and come out with
work for four others.
wg
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 16/05/98 09:58 pm
From : Jay Rayner, 100615,1463 #35149
Of course. Exactly what I did. God John, we seem to be agreeing with each other on
everything at the moment. Just to keep things on an even keel I therefore feel it my duty
to call you an arsehole. No reaosn. Just want to keep friction levels up.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Jay Rayner, 100615,1463 16/05/98 15:17 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35163
Jay,
At last! A source of disagreement! You call me an arsehole because it's your duty. I call
you one because you *are* an arsehole.
:)
J
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,103317/05/98 10:32 pm
From : Jay Rayner, 100615,1463 #35211
No no no. It's only my duty to call you an arsehole because, as a member of her majesty's
press, I am a seeker after truth. Having identified it I must speak as I find. Arsehole.
J
Ps nice piece this morn. Damn. Soryy. What am I saying? Yr an arsehole
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Jay Rayner, 100615,1463 17/05/98 12:56 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35218
Jay,
We're not arseholes - but the bugger who edited that piece this morning ...
J
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 18/05/98 08:32 pm
From : Jay Rayner, 100615,1463 #35272
Yeah, and he's got a girl's name.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 15/05/98 15:13 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35096
>*The old fashioned way: double spaces, one side of paper, wide margins, name+phone
number+plus catchline+page number at the top of each sheet, 'More'
at the bottom, 'ends' at the end. <
John,
It must still be the best presentation; one that self-governs its path through the system.
Used for all hardcopy presentation of freelance work. I take it that this is the one
that you stick to even when submitting
copy by "...directly dialling..." say to Dominic's News International -- again a
plain text file?
Thanks for the reply.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 15/05/98 19:08 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35112
Harry,
When I'm filing to Dominic's News International (or DNI as it's known in Penington Street)
I send a plain text file but I use the Times' onw system of up and down loading which
involves various odd codes. This was, I think, developed for Tandy-toting hacks filing
from the field rather than columnists filing from their gardens, but it works well enough.
Today I have filed to the Observer which asked for e-mail and faxed hard copy and to the
Express which could only take faxed hard copy.
J
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 16/05/98 15:24 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35165
John,
It's as I suspected, the paper and ink industry-is in much the same state as all the
others using computers to 'ease' things along. Different 'houses' have gone down different
roads, not to mention the individual department heads' own preferences. You are obliged to
be a handmaiden to whichever master you're serving as a 'freelance'; be it journalist or
any other unattached working singleton. You have to find out the pattern and make a list
of connection numbers and names, file them and keep updating; so what else is new. You
keep hoping that it will all come together - next year in Jerusalem.
"Tandy Toting Hacks" [I suppose DNI and TTHs could get on the list along with
IMHOs and BTWs]. A good few years ago one of the Guardian's travelling TTHs did a piece on
the difficulties there had been hooking in to head office from the 'field', with a Tandy.
If I recall it was a piece sent in from somewhere in the bush in South Africa. It was
being sent in from the then latest bit of laptop wizardry with which he and other employed
TTHs had been issued.
The green-eyed God strikes again.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 16/05/98 15:45 pm
From : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062#35172
>>You are obliged to be a handmaiden to whichever master you're serving as a
'freelance'<<
Well often it's just a case of setting up different login scripts in your comms program -
hardly a major undertaking.
Dominic
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Dominic Young/Asst Sysop, 104706,3062 17/05/98 12:18 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35217
>...to be a handmaiden to whichever... <
Dominic,
I can't believe I wrote that crap but I did, sorry.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 16/05/98 23:30 pm
From : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033#35197
Harry,
>You are obliged to be a handmaiden to whichever master you're serving as a
'freelance'<
You make it sound a rather bigger deal than it is. Which would you prefer - the modern
system where you have to use a few different codes to get your copy to the right desk in
three seconds flat from anywhere in the world, or the old system. Do you remember how long
it took to file copy over the phone and what a copytaker could do with your spelling and
grammar? Or perhaps you thought it was easier when you had to rely on the winning
combination of the GPO and Fleet Street mail boys.
J
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : John Diamond/Asst Sysop, 104047,1033 17/05/98 12:18 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35216
John,
Paraphrasing something you said a long time ago -- Read it, read it again then again
before you send it off.
I wish I had.
>>Do you remember how long it took to file copy over the phone and what a copytaker
could do with your spelling and grammar? <<
I should have been so lucky.
I don't know if the time you work on something is shorter because of computers but as you
say you are able to move it quickly to its destination.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 15/05/98 00:15 pm
From : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,3705#35064
Plain text, by email.
wg
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,370515/05/98 15:10 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35092
Wendy,
Thanks for the reply. Plain text it is then.
I have CS 3.0.4 set so that the forum messages for the most part come on screen in Times
New Roman or something similar. Your messages and one other's, I think Mike's, comes on in
the simple ASCII(?) font. That is 'plain text'? I guess you work in that all the time.
Harry.
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 16/05/98 09:23 pm
From : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,3705#35138
I actually should have said also: check with your editor what he/she wants.
wg
Forum: Fleet Street Section: Work!
Subj: Submitting copy.
To : Wendy Grossman/FLEET, 104074,3705 16/05/98 15:25 pm
From : Harry Sigerson, 101460,3267 #35168
Wendy,
as you say. He would soon tell you which way to go. I love the sound of it though
"Check in with your Editor".
Harry. |
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