The editor has no clothes

A shock development in the world of journalism: We are planning ahead.

Typically, newspaper office planning looks like this: The editor wants something 10 minutes ago, do it in half an hour or we’ll shoot you.

Covid and WFH changed that to an extent; newspapers have had to be a bit more pragmatic and since editors couldn’t see us, their power base has been eroded.

Hacks noticed something about previously uber-powerful bosses:

They got no clothes on.

That means papers beyond just my own are already planning for Christmas, in the expectation that many of us will be on holiday/at home/sick or all three.

So we want more evergreen interviews, features and “news” stories in the tin than usual.

Which ought to present an opportunity to flaks.

I’m not saying we will take any old rubbish; we won’t.

I am saying there might be a level of pragmatism attached to having decent stuff to run over Christmas that we can deal with right now, rather than in the usual last-minute panic.

I’m already thinking “that might make something” to story pitches that would previously have been totally ignored.