GIRL, 14, KILLED IN FREAK

ACCIDENT AS ABSEIL ROPE

TWISTS AROUND HER NECK

There was a subdeck, too:

Family’s heartbreak over tragedy on adventure break

Then:

Family torment at adventure tragedy

He captioned the photo with a word from a quote: ‘“POPULAR”: Schoolgirl Polly Dunbar’. The picture itself he didn’t even see. A quick check by eye: the first paragraph was 9.5 point, the second 8.5, the third 7.75. No paragraph ended at the bottom of a column or in the top line of the next. There were two full, un-indented lines above and below the pull-quote – ‘She’d been looking forward to the trip’. There were no widows. The copy fitted. He ran a spell check, clicking through all the names it flagged up. A search for double spaces came up blank. It was done. He hit ‘revise’.

But Max had somehow managed to read it while subbing the splash, and said, ‘Jez, there’s a mark from the lawyers. They want us to put the criticism to the ambulance service.’

‘But it’s a matter of record. They did go to the wrong place.’

‘I know, and you’re right, and if you want to start a long argument with them about a Tragic Schoolgirl, be my guest.’

‘I’ll put back in the line about them refusing to comment before they’ve conducted an inquiry. That’ll cover us, won’t it?’

‘It’ll have to.’

‘And on your mortgages, when did the scheme come in?’

‘Announced two years ago, actually came in at the start of last year – so eighteen months.’

‘OK. Will, there’s an add on your Dirty Doctor – a quote from his family. Most of it’s bullshit. Crunch it right down; we only need a flick. Keep the bit about their shame. Rosie, are you sure you’re done with the Bulgarian and the blind woman?’

‘Yes,’ Rosie was bright pink. ‘It’s in.’

‘OK, then pick up a short about the rare 2p coin worth £1,000; it’s on seventeen. Get the two figures in the headline, tell us what’s on the coin. Write it straight, no drop intro, nothing fancy. And as fast as you can. Jez, there’s a single column about an earthquake in Dorset, on thirty-two.’

Jeremy didn’t have to be told what to do. He spotted a problem and told Will, ‘Your parrot, it shouldn’t be in ragged. Bold is always full-out. It’ll get shorter when you change it, you might need to reinstate a line.’

Will had stepped up out of his rookie’s quiet and he, Jeremy and Max were in uninterrupted communication. ‘Got it. Do you want me to cut in that botched execution story?’

Max said: ‘Do it. Also get the figure, that it took forty-two minutes, into the headline. And we need a better pull-quote. I think there is one.’

Will, ‘From the prison guard.’

Max said, ‘That’s it.’

Jeremy said, ‘And I saw there’s more in strike.’