My First Job...

My first "work station" at the Kent & Sussex Courier, Tunbridge Wells, back in 1985 when, fresh from school and still wet behind the ears I began work as a "cub reporter".

Note the typewriter, kiddies. No computers back then. Stories were typed on A5 sheets of paper, with a sheet of carbon paper underneath so a duplicate of your story could be saved in the files (when we remembered to put the carbon paper in the right way round).

The top of each page would have your name and the story name; if there was a picture you marked the first page with the word "pic" and, if it was a submitted picture (rather than one taken by the staff photgraphers) you'd write on the back of it, sometimes on a piece of sticky pink tape if you wanted the picture returned, the name of story it went with.

I seem to recall that the first page of each story was reserved for the first paragraph (the "intro"), then the rest of the story would go on subsequent sheets (usually about three or four paragraphs per page). Every numbered page would end with "cont./", except the last page which was marked "ends".

I'm feeling slightly nostalgic because an era is coming to an end at my old work place; editorial teams are being combined and the sub-editting operation is being moved to Chelmsford (which means several of my friends are being made redundant this week). Sadly, it will no longer be a true local paper - they don't even have town centre offices for people to wander in to with stories.

Later in my journalistic career I was chief reporter and then deputy-editor of the Sevenoaks Chronicle (part of the Courier newspaper group), but that office is being sold off and I believe the Sevenoaks editorial team will then be based out of the Tunbridge Wells office, miles away from their "patch".

A sign of the difficult financial times in which we live... and not a good sign.

UPDATE (7pm, June 8): I have just been informed (via Facebook) that the Sevenoaks Chronicle office has had a "reprieve" and will not be closing for the moment.