14 Sub-editing The death of sub-editing Margaret Ashworth recalls sub-editing before computers and describes the impact that technology has had on today’s newspapers.

Not long ago a story in the Daily Mail about The subbing process a collie lost on a mountain referred to it as a b*tch, with an asterisk as if it were an obscenity What is subbing? rather than the correct and harmless word for The subbing process was still exactly as it was a female dog. When I read that, I realised that when Graham Greene worked on The Times subbing is well and truly dead. in the 1930s, and went back a lot further than It was not just that a sub-editor had changed that. Nearly all the subs were men. When I the correct copy (as I was later told), but that joined, there was one other female and nearly it had been seen before publication by several everyone else smoked, heavily, so there was senior subs and executives. None had objected a permanent fug. We sat at two parallel long to it. The depth of ignorance this reveals cannot tables on which messengers, or ‘copy boys’ – be plumbed. often quite elderly – laid out a pad of flimsy For me, this grotesque nonsense symbolises paper, a pot of glue with a brush, and a spike If paragraphs the state of sub-editing today. Once a proud and (bent over at 90 degrees because some sub, needed rearranging, integral part of newspaper production, carried allegedly Larry Lamb who went on to edit The we cut up the copy out by people of enormous flair, knowledge Sun, had impaled his own forehead) at each and pasted it on to and wit, it is now a marginal affair at best. The place. We all had our own scissors, pen, ruler the plain sheets of national newspaper subs of today are concerned with both inches and points, and headline type paper. with technical matters such as dragging in book. The chief sub, the copytaster, the splash adverts, sourcing pictures and making sure sub (responsible for the main story on page one) legs of type are level, squeezing consideration and the spread sub (who did the centre pages) of the words into last place. The vast majority sat at the ‘top table’ linking the two legs. The of newspapers and online news providers have chief sub handed out the stories, typed by the done away with subs altogether, and copy goes reporters and duplicated on a Banda machine straight from the reporter to the page. Yet (I can still recall the smell of meths on the subs and reporters have very different mental fresh damp pages) to the subs. We rewrote in make-ups. Reporters are all-action, gung-ho longhand, corrected and generally polished the types, who never let the facts get in the way of a copy. If paragraphs needed rearranging, we cut good story. They genuinely do not notice when up the copy and pasted it on to plain sheets of they spell the same name two or three different paper. (We were still in the original Mail offices ways in one story. Subs on the other hand are off , and most nights, parties of terrible nit-pickers. I notice if an unusual word visitors were shown round by the messengers. appears twice in a book. I see if there is a space They would be shown every intricacy of the between a word and a full stop. I know without ‘tape room’, the messengers’ hidey-hole where looking it up that it is Phillip Schofield, not copy was duplicated, but waved past the subs Philip. Yes, it’s tragic. But the point I am making by the copy boy saying, ‘These are the subs. is that subs are a vital part of newspaper They cut up bits of paper and stick them on production, yet now we are considered a waste other bits of paper.’) Every page of copy had to of money. How has it come about during my be marked up with the catchline to identify it, career of 40-odd years that such a high art has the sheet number of the copy, the page number been brought so low? for which the story was destined, the type size, column width, whether it was roman or bold, Working as a sub-editor and ‘NES’, meaning nut each side, a nut being When I did my first casual shifts at the Mail an en or half an em, and signifying the margin in 1974 the printing process was already at each end of the line. Every capital letter had prehistoric. The local paper I moved from used to have two little strokes under it and every early paste-up technology but national papers, paragraph had to start with a square bracket. hog-tied by the unions, were still using methods not far removed from Caxton’s. Copy was set Casting off in type by operators sitting at huge clattering One of the main tasks of the sub was ‘casting Linotype machines with pots of molten metal off’, or estimating the right number of words beside them (thus the expression ‘hot metal’). to fit in a given space. This was more of an art Then it was assembled into pages, line by than a science. A beginner would count the painstaking line, on metal-topped benches in a words, but with practice most of us could guess huge echoing hall known as ‘the stone’. the length reasonably accurately. Unwanted copy was put on the spike and messengers sent

Communicator Spring 2017 15 the finished stories upstairs to the printers in Sometimes only a couple of words needed to pneumatic tubes, the sort that were used in be changed, sometimes a wholesale rewrite was old-fashioned department stores. necessary. Because they were at one remove from the story, subs could see more clearly how Headings best to package it and sell it to the reader. They Headings were another joy. Given a style of, say, could spot errors and double meanings that the three lines of 48 Schoolbook Bold across four reporter, in his or her haste, had overlooked. It columns, you would get out your book of type was much easier, as an outsider, to cut words samples, work how many characters would fit in that the writer had sweated blood to create. a line, handwrite a trial heading and count the And there has never been a reporter who was characters. All three lines needed to be about not forced to admit that on occasion subs had the same length and fill the space. You would improved his copy or picked up an error which try to avoid using ‘m’ and ‘w’ which counted as could have been costly, if not disastrous. one and half characters, while ‘l’ and ‘i’ were halves. The system was unforgiving. If you sent New technology a heading which was even one character too In 1987, the Mail finally hauled itself into the In 1974 a big news long for the line, it would come back from the 20th century and brought in new technology. night was eight ‘case’, where larger type was set by hand, with This led to far-reaching changes. pages out of a total the dreaded word BUST written across it. It must be hard for people even a little of 28 or 32 pages. younger than me (I’m 67) to imagine the Proofs and printing trepidation we felt before the screens arrived. Proof prints of stories were sent to the reading Computers were not commonplace in homes – I department – a rather strange, library-like room did not get one for several more years. Very few where quietly spoken men checked proofs for of us had even seen one, let alone used one. A typographical mistakes. The corrected proofs few older subs retired at this point, and I lost were then returned to the typesetters, who were sleep thinking I would never grasp it. In fact paid for resetting their own errors. the training was good and we did come to grips The newspapers were printed in the basement, with the system, an early version of Atex. and when the presses started running, the whole The new technology took most of the building would vibrate. For more on all this do drudgery out of the job. Subs received copy have a look at a wonderful site written by Hugh on a screen and fed it into the shape required. Dawson, my first chief sub at the Daily Mail: No more guessing the length – you could see www.tomorrowsnewspapers.co.uk when it was a fit. Headlines could be altered on the screen until they fitted, and subs quickly Concentrating on words found out that they could squeeze the type if a Cumbersome and archaic as this sounds now, line was too long (which resulted in some fairly all the technical stuff was second nature and dreadful-looking headings). At a stroke, subs the concentration was entirely on the words. replaced the typesetters, the case hands who set Subs chatted to each other, asking or giving the headlines, the stone hands who made up the advice and helping with tricky headlines. One pages, and the proof-readers. would say to another: ‘What’s our style on guerilla?’ or ‘Can you think of a shorter word How did technology affect the subs? for Ombudsman?’ (My favourite query, from a The advent of the screens had an immediate casual, was ‘What’s our style – Iran or Iraq?’) effect on the subs. It was as if we had been This was how the craft was learned and passed shoved into little boxes. You could not see the on from seniors to juniors. You learned many people opposite and you could not hand a story things every day and it built into a compendium to your neighbour for his thoughts. From that of knowledge, hints and tips. Without doubt, moment the flow of help and advice among experience is the most valuable asset of a sub. I downtable subs was reduced or halted. We were remember thinking during my last week at work all locked into our own computer worlds. (not that I knew it was my last week at the time) ‘I’m still learning in this job.’ End of page restrictions One usually had a lot of time to hone and The new technology also ended the restriction polish each story. In 1974 a big news night was on space. With hot metal, the number of pages eight pages out of a total of 28 or 32 pages, was limited by the rate at which type could be the rest being features, sport and advertising. set. Increasing the amount of type would have Nowadays the paper is often around 100 pages, meant employing more labour at great expense. with 30 or 32 being news. The space restrictions But once the writers' original words were in the meant that stories were crammed in, and most computer system, there was nothing to stop had to be cut to the bone. This was a great editors ordering 72, 84 and 96-page papers. discipline, and every word was weighed to test Larger papers had a big effect on the craft of if it was really necessary. sub-editing. Where once we had to cut stories

Communicator Spring 2017 16 Sub-editing

to fit into small spaces, now there were vast a major difference between those schemes expanses of newsprint to fill – but only the and that of the Mail. The old ones took in as same number of events happening in the world. many recruits as they needed to fill vacancies Stories had to be run at length and often extra available on their local papers, then let them copy, usually culled from previous stories, was make their own way to the nationals; the Mail needed to fill. This was the very reverse of a takes in a set number of trainees every year sub’s instincts to cut all extraneous matter. and funnels them to the national titles whether I found it deeply unsatisfying to have to tell there is a place for them or not. There is now a story three times over in slightly different very little recruitment by any other route. ways when it would have been improved One of the main drawbacks to relying on immeasurably for being slashed back. the training scheme for recruitment is that 99 per cent of possible employees are excluded. Errors The trainees all have top degrees, often from There is genuine Another effect, in my opinion, was to allow Oxbridge. They are paid a very low starting amazement that more errors into the paper. Somehow the wage, nothing like enough to support a person anyone can really old-style typed copy, with its wonky letters and working in , weeding out all except those care about spelling crossings out, seemed less professional and from relatively well-off families. So there will or grammar or more likely to have errors in it than the neat never be another Derek Jameson, the punctuation. and regular lines of computer print. I am sure messenger from a single-parent home who went more errors creep through simply because of on to edit the and the News of the ‘correct’ appearance of screen copy. the World, or Charlie Wilson, the copy boy who eventually edited The Times. The one bright Composing pages spot is that at least half the trainees are women. For a while, finished stories were printed out and sent to the new paste-up department, Changes in attitudes where the successors to the stone hands cut Another potential problem is that today’s them out with scalpels and stuck them on blank highly-educated and self-confident young folk pages. Pictures and adverts were added in the have a different attitude to the job from many same way. However as the technology evolved of us old hands. When we landed a job on the it became possible to compose the pages on Daily Mail it was the achievement of a lifetime Mac screens. A new kind of computer operative – we were working on the best table in Fleet arrived to tidy up the pages and bring in the Street and we were proud of it. The politics of pictures and ads. Inevitably these skilful young the paper didn’t matter in the least to us and we people were known as Maccers. They would had no problem working with copy that opposed make sure all the legs of a story were precisely our own beliefs; what did matter was that we lined up, put the visually correct amount of were working to the very highest standards in space between a picture and its caption, and the business and had the respect of everyone so on. However for some years there has been in it. Of course plenty of contemporary trainees a drive to get the subs to take over these have a great attitude and abundant talent, and operations, reducing the actual subbing to have rightly gone on to greater things. Others, a more or less fringe activity second to the charming young people as they are, seem far technical demands of composing a page. less committed to their employer. Indeed I know of at least two who left because, as they Use of trainees openly admitted, they were embarrassed to tell Despite this, I am sorry to say that in my their friends at dinner parties that they worked opinion the use of trainees has been the for the Mail. Amongst some of those who stay, biggest contribution to the death of subbing. there is often a certain amount of superior Again, I cannot stress enough how important amusement at how seriously the older staff experience is in the art of sub-editing. It takes take their work. There is genuine amazement years to produce a halfway decent sub. Until that anyone can really care about spelling the Mail started its own training scheme, or grammar or punctuation, and ignorance recruitment to the subs desk was either from of current or past events is not considered local papers or other nationals. There was a a problem. When a mistake is pointed out, wide mix of intake, from those who had made instead of being mortified, as I would have been, a promising start in the provinces to highly the youngsters shrug it off with an implied experienced over-40s. There was an organic ‘Whatever’. There was a conversation a while ago progression up the table from novice to those between an old-timer and a trainee who had not near the end of their careers. heard of Rudolph Valentino. 'Before my time, Training schemes are nothing new. I was a I'm afraid,' said the trainee breezily. 'Hitler was trainee with the now defunct Thomson Regional before mine but I've still heard of him,' was the Newspapers in 1971. The Mirror group ran reply. The trainee in question became chief sub a similar scheme at the time. But there was on a quality national.

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For more than ten years, fresh – and cheap * ISTC Council – trainee subs have been arriving every year member as if from a tap that cannot be turned off. At Your ISTC directory The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) is the largest UK the same time all the most senior – and highly body for people engaged in technical communication. It encourages professional paid – subs have been lopped off by various development and standards, provides research resources and networking means: early retirement, redundancy, ill-health, opportunities, and promotes technical and scientific communication as a profession. or pay-offs for being the victim of breached To join the ISTC, change your grade, or get involved in what we do, contact the ISTC employment law. These were people with up to office on +44 (0) 20 8253 4506 [email protected] ISTC Resources - Logo Spec . 40 years of subbing experience. The vacancies were filled by trainees.

The future of subbing Resources

President This would beLinda our suggested size if used on a letterhead Robins - 65mm wide (above). * The font used for the word ‘Resources’ is DIN Bold. I must say I feel sorry for any enthusiastic The logo is made up of a set of CMYK colours (due to the gradient) - Pantone colours have only been provided for reference. C: 85 R: 62 Web: C: 50 R: 162 Web: C: 20 R: 116 Web: C: 100 R: 40 Web: M:[email protected] 19 G: 150 #3E96D5 M: 0 G: 192 #A2C037 M: 0 G: 125 #747D84 M: 73 G: 75 #284B96 Alison Peck * Y: 0 B: 213 Y: 100 B: 55 Y: 0 B: 132 Y: 0 B: 150 Pantone: Pantone: Pantone: Pantone: K: 0 K: 0 K: 60 K: 2 newcomer to the subbing business. It is not 299 C 376 C n/a Re ex Blue C [email protected] Books remotely the craft it once was, when you could Treasurer Stephen Crabbe * finish the evening with enormous pride in a Peter Fountain * [email protected] good job well done. Maybe it was a big running [email protected] ISTC history story, updated over several editions, or maybe it Administration Emma Bayne * was a one-paragraph short with a witty Elaine Cole [email protected] headline. It’s a bit different to think ‘I dragged [email protected] Book review coordinator in lots of ads.’ All sub-editing practices are the Advertising agent Linda Robins * result of many years of experience and knowing [email protected] Felicity Davie ISTC Community - Logo Spec what works best to enable the reader to get the [email protected] most from your product, but now almost no one Business affiliates liaison knows what these practices are. That is a loss Felicity Davie for us all. C [email protected] Carol Leahy *

[email protected] would be our suggested size if used on a letterhead - 65mm wide (above). The font used for the word ‘Community’ is DIN Schrift. The logo can be used as either Pantone (Spot) colours or CMYK, depending on the print spec.

C: 50 R: 162 Web: C: 0 R: 0 Web: International M: 0 G: 192 #A2C037 M: 0 G: 0 #000000 @istc_communityY: 100 B: 55 Y: 0 B: 0 Pantone: Pantone: K: 0 K: 100 Carrie-Jean (CJ) Walker * 376 C Black References Area groups manager [email protected] Tom Dumic Dawson, H “Tomorrow’s newspapers” Marketing [email protected] www.tomorrowsnewspapers.co.uk Ellis Pratt * (accessed January 2017) Area groups [email protected] Elaine Cole The Telegraph online, 20 May 2000 Membership [email protected] Linda Robins * Surveys Derek Cooper * Emma Bayne * [email protected] [email protected] Past President Events Paul Ballard * Louise Fahey Margaret Ashworth was educated at Twitter [email protected] Beckenham Grammar School for Girls Carol Leahy * Forums and University of Kent at Canterbury, @ISTC_org Elaine Cole [email protected] gaining a 2:2 BSc in sociology (actually Website she can’t remember now if it was a BA Gordon McLean or a BSc!). She edited the student newspaper Incant. [email protected] ISTC Professional Development & Recognition - Logo Spec She was a graduate trainee at Thomson Regional Newspapers and worked for three years on the Evening Post, Luton, both as reporter and sub. UK Technical Communication Awards From 1974 Margaret worked for three years as Galyna Key * a current affairs researcher at London Weekend Education, Mentoring and CPD Emma Sheridan * Television while doing shifts at the Daily Mail in the David Farbey * [email protected] This would be our suggested size if used on a letterhead - 50mm wide (above). The font used for the word ‘Professional...’ is Tungsten Medium. The [email protected] is made up of a set of CMYK colours (due to the gradient) - Pantone colours have only been provided for reference. evening and Evening News during time off and on C: 100 R: 40 Web: C: 0 R: 206 Web: C: 0 R: 231 Web: M: 73 G: 75 #284B96 M: 59 G: 122 #CE7A1b M: 35 G: 176 E7B037 Y: 0 B: 150 Y: 100 B: 27 Y: 90 B: 55 Pantone: Pantone: Pantone: K: 2 K: 5 K: 0 Saturdays. She joined the staff of theMail for 18 CareersRe ex Blue C 1595 137 C Communicator months or so then returned to London Weekend and Alison Peck * Katherine Judge * briefly Thames TV. She went back to theMail in 1981 [email protected] [email protected] @ISTC_Journal where she remained until 2013, latterly as splash sub. Margaret is married to Alan Ashworth, former assistant night editor of the Daily Mail, and they Newsletter editor have two children. They live in Ribble Valley, Louise Fahey Lancashire. Margaret runs the website Style Matters, Derek Cooper * [email protected] [email protected] a guide for writers working without subs, and its @tcuk_conf Newsletter layout accompanying blog. Bob Hewitt W: http://stylematters.margaretashworth.com [email protected]

Communicator Spring 2017