Memories of ‘The Evening News’ at a time of great change
On reading about the demolition of The News Centre and editor Chris Broom’s recollections of starting there 20 years ago, it prompted former deputy editor Douglas Hickson to share his own memories of his own time at The Evening News, as it was then.
“I joined Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers, as reporter at Petersfield in 1954 having previously been with the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph.
“I retired in 1989 as deputy editor to Bob Poulton, luckily for me taking early retirement and leaving the UK for our villa in Spain at a still youthful 56.
“I was 12 years at Petersfield and then came into Stanhope Road to sub on the Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle, the company’s then oldest newspaper having been founded in 1799, and I went on to be its editor from 1968 to 1972 at a time when we were running six or seven editions, like the Gosport Journal, Havant County
Press and Petersfield Post.
“One of my favourite anecdotes is that we used to trumpet from time to time that we were the first ever newspaper to report the death of Lord Nelson, the ship returning his body having coming into Portsmouth, UNTIL, one day I got a letter from the editor of the Gibraltar Chronicle saying, in effect, “hang on a minute..!” I later met him and we enjoyed exchanging notes over a beer.
“As a sub and later editor at (The News’ former headquarters in) Stanhope Road I was very much involved in the production process employing methods which had been pretty much unchanged for 100 years. It was virtually a heavy industry with everything in lead and metal, pages being made up on the stone from galleys of type and then when complete going off to the foundry for the heavy lead plates to be made, that took two men to bolt them on to the press.
“And it was also the days when people literally queued to get the Portsmouth Evening News, as it was then, for the racing and football results and the small ads, and when reporters could still ‘phone in copy as late as 2.30am and see it print in the later editions. And sales were around 100,000 copies a night.
“But change came as it was bound to do with the building of The News Centre and I recall being involved in various planning meetings often involving the late Fred Storey, the then chairman, Lord Buckton’s brother, who though not an architect himself was very much the man behind and inspiration for the whole News Centre concept. A paraplegic, he spent hours in his wheelchair during the building process getting himself and out of every developing situation he could manage.
“Came the day, and the West Sussex Gazette was first of our papers to move in, followed by the Chichester Observer Series and lastly the Hampshire Telegraph Series and at the same time we shed our typewriters and carbon paper for computer terminals and the composing room left behind its linotype machines for photo typesetters. Massive changes and massive re-training.
“Lead disappeared to be replaced by paper. With paper, headlines, photos, even ads could be jigged in any position we wanted.
“And the double width presses at The News Centre were ground-breaking, stateof-the-art, high-speed giants that could print in colour as well as black and white. Throughout all my years at The News I never once ceased to thrill when in the press hall at start-up, then the thunderous running and sometimes even a flying paste when print reels changed with the machine still at full speed.
“When finally The News moved came the realisation that the printing department was geared to weekly production and so there were quite a few problems before things got sorted out. It was generally acknowledged the daily paper should have made the move first.
“And that was not all, for the company decided at the same time as moving the paper it should change in size from broadsheet to tabloid, and word was that not even the newsagents were told until the day.
“My own career progressed when at the chairman Sir Richard Storey’s behest, I spent six months studying other newspapers and then produced a report outlining a totally new edition structure for The News which the board accepted and then appointed me deputy editor to Howard Faircloth and told me to make it work.
“Happily for me the years that followed were largely successful and we pushed the sales up to 112,000 a night, with big
Happily for me the years that followed were largely successful
increases up to 118,000 for special editions during the Falklands War, the Mountbatten assassination, royal weddings, etc.
“But it was not all plain sailing. There were, at times, lengthy strikes and tough negotiations with the print unions and the NUJ, whose six-week stoppage saw the paper still being produced, though in a lesser form by the editor, myself and Peter Thompson, a talented journalist and good friend.
“In retirement we lived in Spain for 14 years and then, fairly impulsively, I guess, moved to South Africa to live on the west coast just outside Cape Town for 12 years, finally returning to our home here in 2014. Sadly I lost my wife at the end of last year, but at 91 I soldier on, not quite a dinosaur, for I swim in the sea most days.”