Kentish Express Ashford & District
What was the story with news bill theft?
Do you ever get the feeling that someone doesn’t like you? We’ve had that feeling here in our new office in Ashford’s Park Mall Shopping Centre.
While our welcome by most of the general public, other traders, and our council has been warm, we did spot one gentleman who is not so keen on our presence.
Shoppers will notice we have our own advertising A-board outside our premises in which we display our news bills to tell readers about our top stories each week.
So it was with surprise that our weekend duty reporter spotted a passer-by stop outside and steal them.
Whether he was a worker for Kingdom litter wardens, or someone upset about our coverage of a racist attack by yobs on a teenage boy, the man didn’t seem to want other readers to know about the important stories of the week.
Perhaps he just doesn’t like us or the fact we report news at all, or perhaps an innocent explanation would be that he thought he could do with having the paper.
Sub-editing is an important part of any newspaper’s work, and aside from checking spellings and grammar, it is usually restricted to dotting the Is and crossing the Ts.
But occasionally our subs have to be vigilant for our reporters using cliches or phrases which don’t really belong in the paper.
One such example was Aidan Barlow’s recent use in a crime related story of the phrase “on the night in question”, which was removed from his copy, as it belongs in police jargon from the 1950s. Aidan has since been reminded that he is not Dixon of Dock Green or writing scripts for Z-Cars. As journalists we do our best to report the naked truth of any event, speaking of which, the subject of nudity has popped up quite a bit in recent weeks.
Prime Minister Theresa May says that a vote for Jeremy Corbyn would leave him “naked and alone” in negotiations with the European Union.
Closer to home, we received an email from public relations firm 10 Yetis Digital about which places have been listed as “naked sleeping capitals” in the UK. Apparently residents of Manchester, Leeds, London and Glasgow were all listed in the top 10 places where people sleep without any clothing.
We’re still not sure what relevance this had to us as a newsroom here in Ashford, as there was no mention of our town, or indeed any town in Kent, on their list.
Apparently it was research done for Hillary’s Blinds, who argue that going to bed without clothes on gives people a better night’s sleep, with a “sense of freedom”, “lower body temperature” and “sweeter dreams”. Our reporter Aidan Barlow cannot agree, having slept in only underpants with the humid nights recently, he threw off the duvets and opened the windows. As a result he can report a bad back, and bad dreams.
Another baffling press release came from Harriette Conroy from PMW Communications, discussing the need for a diet which contains amino acids to ward off the herpes virus.
Anyone who remembers their school biology lessons may recall that amino acids make up proteins that give structure to cells and tissues.
But we’re dubious as to whether this can really “shape the way we think and feel”.
According to the press release, without topping up on products from Health Plus, we’re doomed to “bad moods”, “stunted growth” and “herpes”.