IX Fill in the gaps with prepositions if necessary.

1) It might seem that … the face of government secrecy, journalists must be allowed the fullest investigative powers.

2) The dramatic death … Princess Diana while being chased … paparazzi is unlikely to bring the press intrusion … an end.

3) People make a lot … money … you.

4) There is an absolute fascination … her that never wanes … our readers’ point… view.

5) … a result of public anger, … the end of the 1980s, most newspapers appointed an ombudsman to deal … individual complaints.

6) Beyond each newspaper is a final court of appeal … outraged members … the public.

7) The government should bring … legislation to control … the press.

Text 5

THE NEWSPAPER TEAM

The head of the whole journalistic side of the newspaper is, of course, the Editor.

His problem is rather like that of Prime Minister. He is the head of the "Government" of the newspaper with under him a journalistic Cabinet which has a Foreign Secretary in the Foreign Editor of the paper, a Home Secretary in the News Editor, a Minister of Labour in the Industrial Correspondent, a Chancellor of the Exchequer in the City Editor, and so on.

The Editor makes the big decisions on policy both in matters of opinion and on the selection and treatment of news. But, like a Prime Minister and his Cabinet, he works very much with his chief colleagues as a team, and it is only through the work of a whole team of journalists of infinite variety and experience with different skills and different kinds of knowledge that a good paper can be produced.

Naturally, there are many other people connected with the production of a newspaper besides the Editor and his journalistic staff. There, for example, the Business Manager, the Circulation Manager who has to look after the distribution of the paper, the Advertisement Manager who has to sell advertisement space in it, the Printing Manager, and many others, all with large and very skilled staffs.

A newspaper, and particularly a great national newspaper, is an immensely complicated organization, all of the members of which have to be able to work at speed because hours or even minutes count - the best story in the world is no good if it arrives five minutes after the paper has gone to press for the last time. Not only the journalists but all those connected with the printing and production and distribution of the paper have to have their eye on the clock constantly in order to make sure of getting out a good paper on time.

I am not here however, dealing with the whole organization of newspapers but with journalists.

As a journalist myself, I think they are the most important part of the organization because without their collection of news and interpretation of it here could not be a paper at all. But all journalists must bear in mind that they are members of a complex organization which depends on many other besides journalists for its success. For example, without the advertising side of the paper, there probably would not be enough money to keep the paper alive, for all newspapers depend to a considerable extent on advertising revenue to keep going. To cover costs, they usually need to earn approximately nearly as much money from advertising revenue as from the actual sale of newspapers to the public. And but for advertising we would all have to pay a great deal more for our newspapers than we do.

Equally, all those concerned in t he management, printing and distribution of a newspaper are vital to its success: each as important in their own way as the journalists.

The journalist can claim that there would not be a paper at all unless he and his fellow-journalists produced the copy for it. But it could be no good him producing the copy unless there was an expert team to see that is was printed, produced and circulated on time, had enough revenue to enable it to pay its way and was run in a sensible, business-like manner.

When none takes into account all the weekly and daily papers in existence and adds to them all the magazines and periodicals, the range of experience and interest, and ability required is very wide and the opportunities very great.

Indeed, it is almost true to say that journalism is as wide as life itself because that is what it is dealing with. It therefore needs people with a great variety of qualifications.

Many of the things that happen require a good deal of expert knowledge on the part of the person who is writing about them if they are to be made clear and simple to the ordinary reader. And also, of course, it is very necessary that a newspaper should have on its staff journalists who have a lot of contacts in all kinds of fields, in trade unions, politics, industry and so on, so that when anything is happening they will learn about it and be able to decide just how important it is.

Let us consider briefly who these specialists are.

 

First there is the parliamentary reporter, who sits in the Press Gallery of the House of Commons and reports parliamentary debates much has a reporter on a local weekly may have to attend local council meetings and report those.

And any large paper will have on its staff many other specialists.

There will be an Industrial Correspondent to deal with all kinds of industrial matters. He will be in close touch with leaders of the Trade Unions and heads of big industries and firms. If there is a major strike, it is he who will report it and he who will explain why the strike has taken place, what the issues at dispute are, and so on.

There will be a Diplomatic Correspondent experienced in international affairs who keeps in close touch with the Foreign Office and the various embassies; a Science Correspondent, who may well be a science graduate and have done important scientific work before becoming a journalist; an Agricultural Correspondent, who gets news about agriculture developments and policy; an Air Correspondent, who deals with civil and perhaps also military aviation; a Military Correspondent, who writes on matters concerning the Services; and a Motoring Correspondent, who deals with all sorts of motoring subjects and is often invited by the motoring companies to test out new cars so that he has to be a good driver who knows what the ordinary of a family car is likely to be looking for in the car he buys.

And, of course, there will be one whole section of the paper dealing with sport under a Sports Editor, who has on his staff specialists in racing, football, cricket, athletics and every other kind of sporting activity. In addition, because the whole business and finance of the country is so important, there will be a special staff of news gatherers called the City staff, who usually work in the City of London near the Stock Exchange and the big banks in an office by themselves under a City Editor.

There may well be other specialists also - on education, for instance, or local government or ecclesiastic matters. And there will be on each paper a highly trained staff dealing with subjects of particular interest to women - fashions, interior decoration, cooking, home economies and so on - under a Woman's Editor.

So far we have been dealing with home news; that is, with news happening within Britain.

But, of course, a great national newspaper is also very much concerned with news from all over the world, and here, too, there have to be a great many gatherers of the news. They come under the Foreign Editor.

The Foreign Editor has under him correspondents of the paper in all the important countries. Many of these may have served on the paper originally as general reporters and have been sent to Paris or New York or Washington or Madrid or Moscow or wherever news is likely to happen to send back each day what they think is important. They must make themselves so well informed about the events of the country and keep in such close contact with its leaders of every kind that they can give to the readers of the paper a reliable and interesting picture of what is going on. They are ambassadors of their paper abroad.

Just as the News Editor relies a good deal on the Press Association to know what is happening up and down the country, so the Foreign Editor relies a good deal on the big international news agencies, of which the most important British one is Reuters. Reuters has its own correspondents all over the world. It sends resident journalists trained in London to every city and country where news that matters is likely to come from and in addition has arrangements with men and women on the staffs of papers in many other centers to send news when it happens, just as the Press Association has arrangements with people on the staffs of British newspapers. So all day and a good way through the night, news is flowing into the paper.