I is for Issues in Issues

‘Greetings and Unsolicitations!’

Thanks for dropping in.

Have you ever been published in the press? No? Well neither have I. The aim of this blog is to change that and share my experiences with you along the way.

If you like, you can try it with me and tell me how you are getting on.

So, it’s publish or be damned on here. Step by step we will try our hardest, our damndest, to understand it all, learn it all and write ourselves into the papers.

So I’ll make a promise. If I come across something I don’t understand or I think needs some explanation, I’ll tell it all on here. You can watch my struggles and then try it for yourself.

And you’ll probably be better at it than me.

I is for Issues in Issues

Last Episode

Last time we thought about Audience. Have a look if you like.

Today we’ve skipped from letter A to letter I.

It should be ‘B is for…something’, but we go to I.  A to I: what connotations are conjured?

• A1 – London to Edinburgh, The Great North Road.
• Artificial Intelligence, the Spielberg film.
• Artificial Insemination – not really a topic for the breakfast table.

I should delete the above and start again but it is really difficult to ‘kill your darlings’.

Kill Your Darlings: This is a piece of advice attributed to either Ginsberg or Faulkner, who stated that in order to write well, no matter how much it hurts you, you should destroy your most precious phrases for the greater good of the piece.

Applies to writing copy for newspapers of course – the editor will detest lyricism. Also, blogs. By now, you’ve probably switched me off.

Damn, damn, damn.

TipTop: Don’t overuse exclamation marks in writing. Not approved of.

This Episode

Today we are going to look through the pages of West Briton. This is to see what issues are covered in the…issue. Last week’s Easter Special, in fact. This means it has the television listings included in it.

Last time out we thought that our writing needed to be targeting adults; male and female equally; aged15 – 54; skewed towards social class professional and managerial. By exploring the content we can see whether this is true, or not. It is not particularly scientific, I admit that, but worth a try. Also we might get a feel for the in house style of the publication.

So let’s have a flick to see what I can share with you. I’m not here to criticise…I’m here to comment objectively:

Well the typeface is an unfriendly serif font; not too easy on the eye at my age. Sorry, that was a judgement and not at all objective. Try again, Pearce.

Front Page

Headline: ‘No More Tea, Vicar’

Subhead: ‘Tea room owners call time after Diocese’s £20,000 request to lift alcohol ban.’

Byline: Caroline Chick

Content: Some people who own a tea room are closing it because they can’t sell alcohol due to archaic church rules. Well the angle here is definitely designed to appeal to locals, the word ‘diocese’ is unexplained and presupposes understanding, the church is involved….not exactly exciting, though. Great seasonal gag, however: by Caroline ‘Chick’. That’s an Easter joke, isn’t it? Chuckle.

It isn’t? Oh dear. Not doing very well here at all. This morning we are stopping and starting more frequently than a prime time episode of ‘The X Factor’.

Abandon ship and try a different method. I’ll open five pages at random and use the table below to summarise the findings.

Title	Peg	Content	Angle	Comment
‘Put nature at the heart of this year’s national poll’	General Election	Use debate and votes in run up to election to raise profile of conservation	Importance of green policies in Cornwall	Simple piece with obvious bias towards green issues. Will appeal to local adults with disposable income. Information about support and website given.
‘Duncan Smith: Cornwall has cause to thank Conservatives’	General Election	Visit of Ian Duncan Smith to Redruth area	Conservatives have boosted local economy through business policies	Dull piece about visit of Tory to factory. Bias is obvious but it is attributed to IDS. However, little in the way of balance?
‘Motorist fuming as car locked in to multi-storey’	None, really.	Wadebridge man has to pay £30 pounds to have car released from locked car park.	New car parking locking regime’s inadequate notices.	More like it! Lots going on here – the man is from Wadebridge, does not understand Truro ways. He’s an ‘out-of-towner’. There’s a plug for the Truro Theatre (HFC). Also a pop at the council.
‘Trelawny Shout on St Piran’s Day raises £8000’	St Piran’s Day	People in pubs sing the Cornish anthem on St Piran’s Day to raise money.	Cornish raising money for Cornwall	Patriotic story shows how Cornish care for Cornwall and can help. Includes drinkers in ‘London and Ireland’. The success of raising eight grand will mean it now becomes a national event.
‘Planet Poldark is fascinating – but not Cornwall as we know it’	New Poldark on TV (Letter to Editor)	Reader review of BBC’s Poldark	TV version of Cornwall is for tourists only; locals know better.	The writer of this pretentious stuff should learn to ‘kill his darlings’. Or it is a mockery. You must read it and judge for yourself J http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-37815899.html

There we have it. Five totally random selections from the news in the paper. I avoided the sport / entertainment and listings sections.

What have we got?

It’s stating the obvious, but we’re looking for features that highlight Cornwall, particularly Truro. The angles suggest a bias towards celebrating the uniqueness of the Cornish culture. Nothing particularly political or controversial in these stories but there wasn’t much counterweight to the IDS story. The Green story was written by a conservation spokesperson. The copy is written for adults, local people but there are family interest stories too. It’s just that the randomizer didn’t chance on these.

Conclusion

As we might guess, we’re probably writing for middle to top income Cornish people of both genders: nothing serious, nothing dangerous (Vorg).

Next Time

I don’t know. We could explore the idea of a news diary or perhaps the construction of a feature. Exciting, isn’t it?

Wonderful Words!
Peg	The event that inspires the news story
Angle	The writer’s take or slant on the story
(In) House Style	The approved style for a particular publication. Guidelines for writers.
Byline	The writer of the story’s name

The Letter Challenge

Another way of getting published in the press is, of course, to write to their letters page. I challenge you to write, once a week, to see how long it takes. Your letter must come in at 100 words. Please send successful letters to the Blog where I will publish the best ones.

For my part, I shall use suggestions from my two year old Grandson, Harley.

As we read, so we learn J

This Week: Easter Chocolate

Dear Editor,

I was extremely alarmed and irritated to discover that chocolate Easter eggs are on sale at half price or less in local Truro supermarkets.

At best this is irresponsible retailing, at worst an assault on Cornish teeth.

We here in Cornwall should protect our teeth at all costs. And believe me, it does cost a lot to visit the dentist these days. We would save money by eating less eggs and preventing tooth decay.

I remember when Cornish dentists were free. Some might say it’s a disgrace that toothless London politicians impose these tooth taxes on the South West.

Say no to Easter chocolate and hollow teeth!

Yours sincerely,