The Village Editor

He's always on the search for news

Quite a number of villages have their own monthly newsletters and reading one the other day it made me wonder if the editors of our provincial, or for that matter our national newspapers realise how cosseted they are. Compare what they have with the lot of our village editor. Not for him the luxury of a palatial office, an effervescent secretary, willing and able to respond to his every whim, a posse of journalists at his fingertips bombarding him with up to the minute news. All such an editor has to do is to decide what goes on what page then off to play golf!

Our village editor is much less fortunate; desperately searching for tit-bits of news in a village where there isn't any. Not for him the scoop of the century with his newssheet screaming headlines, "Vicar Elopes With Young Housemaid". There aren't any housemaids in the village; come to think of it there isn't even a Vicar.

Our village editor must be a model of diplomacy. A word of criticism of his production staff could lead to a walk out by half of them, leaving the other half on a go-slow. Then what of his readers? Circulation levels can drop if our editor dares to express an opinion on any subject, assuming of course there is anything worth commenting on.

However one vigilant editor, ever ready to retain his readership announced recently that he had recruited a new writer to his team and that more would follow. Since he is a keen soccer supporter the village grapevine thinks he may well be having talks with such as Alan Shearer, but in all probability it will turn out to be the village coalman trying to fill in his time now everyone is turning to gas.

May I suggest the next time you read your village newsletter spare a thought for the village editor, a man who treads a lonely path as he doggedly sticks to his task of giving his village the latest news, even if there isn't any.

Les Lawrence