Lincoln Echo not echeo

I almost managed to avoid making a pun.

So this weeks little adventure has really hit home with probably the core point of journalism of all branches. You need to stand out.

So Tuesday we had a trip to the Lincolnshire Echo and had a talk from the editor Jon Grubb a man obsessed with crisps and news (my kind of man if he had love for Milky bars), a journalist who has no formal journalism training and learnt everything whilst on the job. The key points he put down were as follows:

1. No brownie points for superb writing skills, it's just a given it's the story that makes exceptional (and the odd well placed piece of grammar)
2. Theirs a difference between a journalist and reporter. A reporter writes up the story and life's the nine to five life. A journalist is always on and constantly looking for a story and maybe getting a little emotionally connected. So maybe then they can administer some social justice. Jon had a good example of this. Jon successfully had two wrongly accused men freed from prison after being wrongly imprisoned for murder after five years of campaign.
3. Stand out from the CV. Jon explained his pet peeves and jeeves about CV's. Saying you watch films and listen to music is more generic then a US teen drama. Saying stuff like (true story) Miss Piggy's your inspiration will at least up your chances of getting a job.
4. Stories are everywhere, from on old trick Jon showed us which included flicking through the TV guide selecting a station and getting at least two stories out of each programme will tune us to our spidey..sorry story senses.

So what I thought of the new room was simple, it wasn't only the people that were alive. Screens were plastered in either half typed copy or a journalist following a lead. Some seemed so busy that they were multi tasking in maybe one of slickest of ways. Typing whilst talking into possibly some of the coolest real life headsets i've seen. That's little nerd who only got an Ipod a few months ago has serious leaf green tree envy.
Even though it was bordering on 4pm still dedicated workers sat their doing their various journalist jobs.
Department breakdown:
1. Advertising department- This is the team which literally get affected when things money wise takes a tumble, the housing market takes a nose dive and these guys could quickly get the chop. They're is to sell ad space and make the paper money.
2. News- These are the guys who fill out the paper with news, overall the team was a number of 58 in 2008 and is now 26, the recession has hit hard. Jon mentioned their was heavy reliance on freelancers.
3. Editorial- The blinking head of the paper- Their job is to make the tough choices and get the paper ready for print.
4. Photography- A paper without pictures is like a body with a heart, it's got no connection to anyone (oooh ice cold for me) these guys get the stunning pictures to back up or compliment the stories.