Last of the hot metal men and the birth of a nation-al

The birth of a morning newspaper is a wonderful thing to behold. I've witnessed it 14,560 times in my chequered career as a reporter, sub-editor, chief sub-editor, night editor and editor. There isnt anything quite like it if, like me, you have the ink of tradition in your veins. The early morning glory of rolling presses. Blue ink stains. Smoking big cigars on the street corner. Delivery trucks kicking up dust. The first spoils before the edition hits the streets registry out of line, literals, web breaks, computer crashes, missed deadlines, newsroom inquests, editorial conferences. That first phone call when a story begins its inexorable rise into 15 minutes of fish-and-chip-paper glory. This is the birth of a national. And people from alien worlds, like the advertising department and the internet gurus, predict that its all over but the screaming headlines. But as that great hot metal doyen of Fleet Street Derek Jameson used to say in his raucous Cockney tones, Do they mean us? Surely not! Surely they dont really believe that William Caxtons 600-year-old ambition, now imprinted across the face of the world, will ever really be over. How could it be? Look what a newspaper is! A newspaper is an 80,000-word daily dose of news, views and interviews, drama, scandal, violence, sex, outrage, politics, celebrity, religion, sport, artistic pictures, the odd-ball, the strange and the downright comical ... Births. Deaths. Marriages. Personal advice. Agony. Ecstacy. Information. Telly programmes. Competitions and adverts offering bargains, jobs, holidays, new cars, a new style, hopes and aspirations. A dazzling challenging panoply of real-McCoy life. Paul Gillin, who runs a website called Newspaper Death Watch, says this: The economic foundation of these media scions is badly broken. The high cost of print publishing makes the major metro business model unsustainable in a world that increasingly wants information for free. Take damaging scandals at a few major publications and you have an industry thats teetering on the brink of an abyss. Paul, who keeps a list of newspapers which have closed since 2007, makes some fair points. But he is a technology writer. How does that make him an expert on my world? On the other hand John Cassidy, writing about Rupert Murdoch in the New Yorker, argues: Rather than behaving like traditional press barons, or crusaders for a particular set of political values, people like Murdoch are increasingly aping the makers of other consumer goods, such as fashionable clothes and trendy gadgets: limiting free online access, pushing up their

subscription prices, and generally trying to exploit the power of their brands to distinguish themselves from lesser competitors. And I believe that the old mad hound of the dog-eat-dog world of print has got it right but there is nothing new in what hes doing. Newspapers are a unique commodity. Trendy and fashionable and creative. And far from falling behind, they still create fads, trends and promote innovation. Ashley Highfield, chief executive at Johnston Press, which has almost 200 titles in the UK, has revealed that every newspaper in his group has a 'healthy profit margin of more than 20 percent. And he plans to keep his print operation profitable while also moving the organisation beyond the presses. He said: The fundamental thing is understanding our audience needs and meeting those with the right content in the right place and the right medium at the right time. And that is where newspapers have the chance of continuing their storytelling domination of the world. For thats what people like me, journalists, are: storytellers. The ones who can spot a good yarn and spin it like gold. Who cares if sometimes we buffet along at the upper echelons of the truth! If newspapers are to continue, we ink-smudged, garrulous print junkies need to look to the future with quality stars in our eyes. We need to go back to the days when the newspaper you carried under your arm or shook out ostentatiously on the morning bus or commuter train defined you, gave out messages about your lifestyle and ambitions. Newspaper people need to turn out quality literary products with startling images and groundbreaking design. We need to capitalise on our storytelling skills and tell the stories behind the news and turn out grand exclusives which rent the very fabric of society. Sunday newspapers are already off down this new road and so are some weeklies. Even in this cold-comfort climate more than 1.6 billion people every day buy a newspaper and settle back in their chairs for a quick shot of news, views and outrage. All we have to do is focus on this gigantic customer base and lead it back to the future.