EDITOR ON TOUR #1: How they nearly splashed on the mustard in Whitby

Whitby Gazette

WALKING on the North Yorkshire coast was supposed to be a break from the hurly-burly of journalism, but it wasn't long before a headline caught my eye.

Whitby raid by 'Mustard Gang' sang out from the top of the page 1 nibs column of the Whitby Gazette, along with a colourful picture of a jar of Colman's Mustard.

A lovely, eye-catching touch I thought, and a news sub's trick that certainly caused me to part with 42p.

Was it a raider armed with a jar of the hot stuff who'd flung it at the face of a shopkeeper before grabbing the takings? Or was it a gang that specialised in running off with sacks of mustard for some spicy black market somewhere in this remote countryside? I was determined to find out.

In the end it was a far simpler tale of a gang of supermarket till raiders who described themselves to arresting cops as the 'Colman's Mustard Gang' because they reckoned they were so 'hot' at what they did.

Not so hot in the end, as the Glasgow-based criminals had been identified by sharp-eyed detectives reviewing the CCTV-footage following a raid at Whitby's Co-op store.

And it was local bobby DC Neale Graham who led the investigation that saw the five criminals jailed for a total of 15-and-a-half years at York Crown Court.

The full court story, headshots of four of the gang and a huge cut-out picture of the much alluded-to Colman's Mustard adorned page 3. This was the way to tell and illustrate a top local story that must have been the talk of the pubs in this close-knit seaside town.

The Whitby Gazette has been doing just that since 1854. The Johnston Press paper now publishes on Tuesdays and Fridays and covers Whitby, nearby coastal villages and the villages of the Esk Valley, still selling more than 10,500 copies a week according to the latest ABCs. Not bad for a paper where only 13,500+ people live in the main town it serves.

The 'mustard' edition was the 40-page Tuesday version of the Gazette, the slimmer companion to the more-expensive and fatter Friday publication. This soon became just 28-pages once you subtracted the 12-page commercial House & Home pullout.

But unlike some 'midweeks' I've seen, there appeared to be no slacking in the editorial quality of this October 20 edition coming from the white-washed Whitby newsroom that prominently sits smack in the centre of the town, next to the harbour bridge.

Personally, I'd have splashed on the mustard, so to speak, but, as described, it was enough to tease me with a classy page 1 nib.

The actual splash was a softer tale about the Queen Mary 2 liner paying tribute to a recently deceased Whitby lifeboat volunteer by sailing past close to the harbour and sounding its horn. He'd been a close friend of the ship's captain, who'd wanted to pay his special respects.

Although not hard-news, in this sea-faring town this too would have been discussed by all. And judging by the size of the crowd pictured watching the sail-past from Whitby's West Cliff, it would also have helped sell some extra papers.

With only 28 true editorial pages, the Tuesday Gazette provided a total of 43 individual local news stories, plus 34 reports on the 'Community Noticeboard' spread on pages 10 and 11, and 17 sports reports packed into the last four pages.

If this doesn't sound too-high a story-count, then consider that there were also a total of 20 local sports pictures and 58 - yes 58 - local pictures in the news pages. These included three picture spreads, with as many as 22 pictures from the annual wartime weekend held at nearby Pickering.

But while that particular history spread may have been overkill, there was plenty of other real news, such as 'Who claimed what in council expenses' on page 5.

This highlighted the top claimers at Whitby district borough council, costing a total of £34,810 in expenses - more than any other district council in the region.

The real show-up was the inclusion in reporter Carl Gavaghan's detailed despatch of the 'cheapest' councillor who claimed no additional costs. Coun Pat Marsburg was reported as saying: "My constituents elected me to help them and I don't expect them to pay my way. I'm fighting for them to get extras, not for myself."

Can we imagine many MPs saying that? Great quotes for an excellent local story.

Well done to acting editor Jon Stokoe and team for the detailed read I enjoyed after climbing the famous 199-steps.

COMING SOON...

EDITOR ON TOUR #2: The Weston & Somerset Mercury