I put the royal baby story in the 'news in brief' slot
'I don’t remember the headline ('Royal birth'?) – I do remember the fuss on the Today programme'
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Your support makes all the difference.We all knew Andreas’s view about royal stories – not the Indy’s thing – and we also knew Sarah Ferguson was about to give birth, but I don’t recall a lot of discussion. With luck, it would happen in the middle of the night, after we’d gone home.
Jonathan Fenby, the home news editor, said on his way out of the office that a nib (news in brief) item would be about right if the birth was announced. But when it was confirmed – at 8.18pm, on 8.8.88 – we wondered if we were really going to go through with it. I called deputy editor Matthew Symonds at home; he confirmed, slightly irritably I thought, that it was fine. So we did it: a nib at the bottom of page two.
I don’t remember the headline (“Royal birth”?). I do remember the fuss on the Today programme. Accidentally, we were the story. Andreas didn’t say much, but he seemed happy.
David Marsh was variously sub-editor, production editor, night editor and deputy managing editor (1986-1996)
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