Journalism is in a period of change and transition, with online and hyperlocal journalism being the new buzzwords, and the imminent death of printed newspapers being heralded by the doom-mongers.
But it’s reassuring to know that in some respects, journalism today isn’t so different to what it was like in the 19th century.
We’ve been re-reading a memoir by Journopig One’s ancestor, JC Manning (1827-1907), who was a Victorian journalist. His career spanned the 19th century; he was a founder member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, and Times lobby correspondent, who had started his career as a printer’s devil on the Leamington Courier.
In his book, Glimpses Of Our Local Past, Manning tells a story of the Leamington Courier in its infancy, when the proprietor’s son used to help with the typesetting of the articles – but didn’t take the job too seriously:
“The most curious literal errors were constantly found in its columns… One week,a local race-goer of note found himself spoken of as a ‘well-known snorting character’, snorting, of course, being originally meant to read sporting.”
The ’snorting’ character turned up at the newspaper office with a riding whip, to punish the person who had made fun of him; but no-one owned up.
Then, after a few letters were lost en route to their destinations, the Post Office was featured in stories as the “Lost Office”.
And then – and bear in mind that a respectable Victorian journo would need to spare his blushes – a more “disgraceful and scandalous” change in words was made:
“‘The Country Gentleman’ once got tampered with… and in a manner impossible to describe. ‘Stop the presses!’ roared the then proprietor…”
We think the actions of this regional newspaper’s proprietor’s son in the 1830s wouldn’t be out of place on The Sun’s subs’ desk – imagine the headlines that the Leamington boy could have conjured up. Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster has nothing on it.
