At Christmas time we brace ourselves for a degree of culinary over-indulgence. Half of you wants to guzzle that extra glass of something fizzy, cram in another pig in a blanket and say “yes” to a second helping of Christmas pud; the other half is quietly desperate to shout “no” when the chocolates come round again, craving nothing more than a simple salad.
Journalists experience something similar when it comes to the news over the Christmas period. Organisations don’t tend to issue press releases about research findings for instance, and neither the parliament nor courts are sitting, so the run of the mill stories that can be relied on during “term time” aren’t available. It’s the big events that will ensure there is something for the front page – a natural disaster or celebrity death, or perhaps some travel chaos or terror attack.
Editors thus find themselves half hoping for something extraordinary to happen; something that will get readers rushing out to buy a paper, or logging on to read the headlines, or tuning in to the TV bulletins. Then there will be no anxiety about whether there is enough news to fill pages online or in print, or a half hour of radio.
On the other hand, those running news desks at Christmas know they have fewer reporters on hand to cope with something massive if it kicks off. In a crisis, they may be able to call people back from their annual leave; or hope that a key commentator can send in some analysis from wherever they may be (just as Sean O’Grady did after Paddy Ashdown, for whom he previously worked, died last weekend). But for the most part, it’s a question of simply doing what you can with the resources available. That’s why the other half of a duty editor keeps their fingers crossed for a quiet couple of days.
This Christmas, there was neither too little nor too much news. I hope the same was true of your turkey intake.
Yours,
Will Gore
Executive editor
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments