Byline time

My article on last week’s utility conference ran today in the Belfast Telegraph. Several important paragraphs were deleted for space and an inserted paragraph was garbled by editors. Ah the memories! I was a journalist for 12 years and used to have pitched battles with editors who ruined my pristine copy. Now I really don’t care. Partly because I wasn’t up until 11 pm answering editors' questions. Editors used to pester me with questions then goof around with my copy until it was a mess. Writers felt that editors did this to make themselves feel important. Probably not fair, but it always amazed me that editors couldn’t touch an article without introducing an error.

I only cared about one person’s opinion of the article--the professor who spent hours briefing me before the event. I sent him my original, with the deleted paragraphs highlighted, so he knows I tried to do right by the event, which he organised. His employer, Ulster University, is a target for me, so I want to be in his good books.

It was weird to have a byline as Casey Aspin when I was Casey Gilmore all the years I was a journalist. And then invisible all the years I was a corporate writer.
9-26