I was at The Independent on its first day in 1986 and in some ways, nothing has really changed

Many of my tasks – from choosing which stories and images to use on the front page, to deciding how to cover breaking news – remain the same

Back in 1986 I was one of the founding members of The Independent. Today I am the only person from that crew still working here.

Those early days were, of course, highly exciting times, though I also have to admit to looking back with twinges of embarrassment. One such moment being the lecture I gave the guy sitting next to me, saying he was bonkers to consider leaving a famous, new national paper to dabble in travel writing. Bill Bryson rather proved me wrong on that one.

The feeling of being in at the start of something new and successful was thrilling, and decades on there is a similar sense of innovation with The Independent Daily Edition app, enabling our readers to enjoy the experience of a newspaper while using new technology.

The Daily Edition retains something of the feel and look of old paper, while being able to rely on the resources of a successful website.

I often used to edit the old Independent newspaper at weekends, and many of my tasks – such as choosing which stories and images to use on the front page – remain the same now.

For example, readers will have seen our in-depth coverage of the tragic Leicester City helicopter crash on the front page of the app and in the news section rather than in the sports section. It’s an editor’s job to decide which stories deserve this kind of weight, and find the best way to guide readers to them.

The weekend does bring its special challenges. The staff is smaller than on weekdays, and – more pertinently – the news is not so plentiful. Parliament is not sitting, most of the government are in their constituencies, the business world is “off”, and the news is not going to generate itself.

This is why our front page at weekends nearly always has an exclusive on it. These have been in the works throughout the week, and I think are crucial in making sure we’re always delivering important, valuable information to our readers, every day of the week.

But there are differences too. Thanks to the incredible digital advances of the past decades, we are now able to have a much more immediate relationship with our readers. Our letters page, for example, includes readers’ opinions on stories of the day – something which was impossible back in the carrier pigeon days of 1986.

It is this constant desire to keep finding new ways to engage with readers and report the news that means I can still be excited to go to work on a Sunday morning, even after 32 years.

Yours,

David Lister
Weekend Editor of The Independent Daily Edition