Colin Gregory, who has spent almost 50 years as a journalist in the Truro area, during whish he was named both regional daily journalist of the year and regional feature writer of the year, takes a brief look back on his work in Cornwall.
YOU must not drink alcohol and you must not gamble. Those were two of the instructions I had to agree to when I signed my articles of indenture to take up an apprenticeship as a trainee journalist at a weekly newspaper in North Cornwall in 1963. My mother also had to sign the documents as I was just 16 and it set me off on a career I have loved.
I remember those days when the roar of the huge printing presses could be heard around any news building at publishing time, tobacco smoke filled the offices and the public could not wait to buy their “local rag” full of news and sport, births marriages and deaths. If you didn’t buy a paper you would not know what was going on in your locality.
I have just realised it is almost 50 years since I came down to work as a journalist in Truro. Between those days in North Cornwall I changed careers for a while, worked in business and then studied economics and finance in Bristol. It was just after leaving university that a friend who worked on the Western Morning News told me they were desperate for a sub editor and I should try it and earn what was then good money while I figured out what I was going to do with the rest of my life, hopefully accruing a fortune on the way.
It was not long before I was appointed deputy chief sub editor and I was asked to draw up a plan for the future of the paper. I then persuaded the powers-that-be that I needed to work in a district office for a while, and after telling me my future was in production I was told I could go down to Truro but had to return to head office within 12 months. In the event, the Editor who issued that instruction sadly died and I never moved back, marrying a Truro girl and having a daughter who went to school here.
The Truro post led to opportunities to be involved in some of the main events in Cornwall, the triumphs, the tragedies, and the every day life which contributes to our good fortune to be living in such a wonderful part of Britain. My job as a journalist has led to me interviewing every prime minister, from Harold Wilson to David Cameron, including three sessions with Margaret Thatcher and so many wonderful people, including a memorable trip to Nassau, in the Bahamas, in the training ring with the great Muhammed Ali.
I covered a period in which tin mining in Cornwall began to collapse under the problem of other countries, with their workers on low wages, being able to extract minerals from the ground at much lower prices. At one stage Truro MP David Penhaligon, whose death in a car crash at Christmas 1988 shocked the country, persuaded the Government to provide finance to keep the Cornish mines going but in the end it was not viable. I went down every working mine in Cornwall, with a personal highlight being a trip underground at Geevor with the Queen.
However, stories of some of my exciting times are for another day as I feel we have to look at what has happened to my industry, the local and regional newspapers and other publications.
It is just approaching 50 years since I moved down to Truro from the Western Morning News head office in Plymouth and almost 10 years since I last worked full time as a journalist, ending my career with a stint on BBC Radio Cornwall followed by the West Briton and Cornish Guardian. Back in the 1990s the WMN was selling over 60,000 copies a day while the West Briton was one of the country’s most successful weeklies with a similar circulations.
One of the fascinating benefits I have enjoyed through working as a journalist and feature writer is the wide range of people I have interviewed in my time as a journalist. How many people could say they accompanied the late Queen, Elizabeth as she went below the sea in a tin mine, Geevor, interviewed Mrs Thatcher many times including the tour she made to build up support in the election which made her Prime Minister, welcomed both Princess Diana and Kylie Minogue to Cornwall and spent a wild night with Jordan, when she was promoting drinks at a bar in Truro. It has given me some wonderful memories.
There are many reasons virtually all circulation has dropped, with print newspapers suffering revenue losses through advertising spending moving to digital platforms like Google, Facebook and others
During my time at the WMN and Evening Herald in Plymouth there were 256 people who clocked in each day while when the West Briton moved to a brand new hq in Malpas Road in Truro there were around 60, even though the printing had moved to Derriford. Now, as throughout the country the number of staff is less than a quarter.
The reduction in journalists means that local government, courts and other events are not covered in the thorough ways they used to be, with reporters having to work much harder to keep up with the pressure, From my own experience I can remember spending a month on one terrible double murder at Manaccan, filing detailed stories to the WMN every day. A proud moment for me came at a police briefing at St Austell in the 1990s on the day after a man went berserk and killed his wife and her parents, then blew himself up in his own home. We worked hard to get all the details, and the Detective Superintendent in charge of the case told the other press and tv reporters “if you want to know everything that has happened it is all in today’s Western Morning News.”
The rise of digital news has made local print publications less relevant, and ,as in most cases it is free on our phones or computers, we are less likely to spend money the next day on buying a newspaper. In just the last five years the sales of local papers has been in free-fall and the number of trained and experienced journalists employed is a fraction of what it was when I came into the business. Be thankful that there are still a number of skilled and hard working journalists working their socks off in Cornwall.
While print sales of local papers have dropped dramatically, (the West Briton, for example to under 3000 copies per week) the one brighter note is that the digital versions have huge numbers of readers, with page viewing for the West Briton, for instance, reaching an incredible six to ten million a month. However, the coverage tends to have to be brief so that the full story is seldom told.
My first weekly paper used to cover everything, from the complete agenda at a local council meeting to weddings, with pictures.
My first editor used to say, “names sell papers” and we used to print the names of everyone who attended a funeral. Looking back through one of my scrap books this week I came across a story I covered at the old Bodmin Crown Court in 1985 when the landlord of a pub at Falmouth was charged with allowing prostitution on his premises. As I was walking towards the court for the second day of the hearing I was approached by four men who had been witnesses and had availed themselves of the close female company the hostelry had to offer ,
” We have a complaint, our names aren’t in the paper,” they said.
Unknown to me the man who edited the story had cut out their names to save them embarrassment.
“We bought a paper because we wanted to see ourselves in the Western Morning News but our names aren’t mentioned,” one said. I have had a few complaints over the years, but never one like that.
