Monday 30 April 2012

Why subs need a dirty mind .. and good taste

I regularly warn subs that they must have a dirty mind and good taste ... so that they keep the double entendre and innuendo out of the paper. As the page above shows, the rule also applies to advertising and promotions. Thanks to Sports Business International editor @mattycutler for this. It reminds me of a headline a few years ago, above an interview with a woman who had won a competition in the Bucks Free Press, which read: I didn't know my boyfriend had entered me. Here are a couple of other examples where good taste might have intervened here and here.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous2 May 2012 at 12:52

    I can remember a story from my days as a sub on the Scunthorpe Telegraph, about a brigade of young, female army corps. A colleague headlined the piece, "Girls drilled in courtyard". I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing!

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  2. Anonymous3 May 2012 at 12:18

    One of my favourites involves teenage girls "beating off stiff competition" to become beauty queens. Lovely.

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  3. Anonymous3 May 2012 at 12:22

    "Mayor fights erection in the High Street" was a headline that springs to mind, especially as it ran underneath a picture of the civic leader in question, who had a grim and determined look on his face.

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  4. Peter Sands3 May 2012 at 12:45

    Thanks for these. When at The Northern Echo we had David Jenkins as the Bishop of Durham. He was coming in for some stick for his radical views when the Vicar of Darlington came to his defence and said the Press and politicians should get off his back. One of my subs put up the headline 'Stop Bashing the Bishop, say vicar.' I changed it on the proof. Killjoy.

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  5. Anonymous10 May 2012 at 14:39

    Readers letters can also be a nightmare for the unwary sub. Two to look out for are letters signed by Hugh Janus and Gloria Stitz.

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