It's been more than a week since I left full-time employment and I'm having withdrawal symptoms. With no wire service, no 24-hour TV, no news schedules to stare at every waking moment, I'm reading everything that comes through my door.
I live in a village and, once a month, The Voice of the Village is delivered. Last month's had a carnival picture on it and I threw it in the bin with the Indian menu and neighbourhood watch stuff. This month's had a picture of cricketers on the green opposite and I read it cover-to-cover.
It's citizen's journalism in print. Seventy-two pages of A4 folded in half, full of snippets, profiles of local people, listings, what feels like a 200gsm glossy cover - and all printed by a bloke down the road.
It covers what local papers call parish pump: Ofsted praising a local school, plans for a phone mast, the usual yellow-lines controversy and even an appeal for neighb ours to be considerate when lighting barbeques.
But what makes it worth reading is when it tries its hand at traditional reporting. A two-page spread on PC's (sic) winning bravery awards carried a hiilarious account of a potentially serious incident in which local bobbies "attended the scene", tried to "locate the offender" while "maintaining a position at the front of the premises". On another page, they report that a local "male" is being held in custody on driving charges.
It's full of companies vacating premises, people working in commercial units and living at residential addesses and littered with minor mistakes. But it's absolutely packed to the rafters with ads from estate agents, glazing firms, pubs, restaurants, garages, builders and hairdressers.
I can see the bloke down the road vacating the village soon for the sun.
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- Richard Burton
- I'm the former editor of telegraph.co.uk, a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster, and a Fleet Street journalist of 25 years with Today, the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Telegraph. Until recently, I was managing editor of the Jewish Chronicle. I am now working as a publishing and PR consultant and freelance writer. My views here do not reflect those of any of those organisations.
3 comments:
They won;t be so packed with ads when those business realise they are getting naff all return and start investing in a proper web presence... (Mike, mbites.com)
Mark's dead right. These pamphlets do provide a service, as do local freesheets and those papers the local police and every political party shove through your door. Problem is, I'm a serial pedant and I edit everything from signs outside shops to blurb on cereal packets. Used to drive my family mad.
In my defence, I do give talks locally and some, such as the WI, will ask me to comment on newsletters/judge their creative writing etc. I also help run writer's weeks for a local school although that probably only means they'll be churning out pedantic young farts like me.
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