Counting the days... Take office as Night Editor
I bid farewell to my colleagues at the Junior Graphic on Monday, July 31, 2017, after the end of production for the week.
Meanwhile, midway through production, the team had to pause for some few minutes to organise a send-off for me, during which I was presented with a parting gift. It was a short but emotional ceremony, which signified the end of my tenure as the Assistant Editor at the Junior Graphic.
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The next day, Tuesday, August 1, 2017, I assumed office as the Night Editor of the Daily Graphic. It was a new terrain for me, with very tight schedules, even though the processes were not very different from what prevailed at both The Mirror and the Junior Graphic.
Take office as Night Editor
When I reported for work that Tuesday, I went to the Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, to inform him about my assumption of duty as the Night Editor.
He told me that per my schedule of work, I reported directly to him, that my reporting time for work was 12 noon and that it was obligatory for me to attend Editorial Conference at 1 p.m. every production day, including Sunday.
He went on to tell me more about the Daily Graphic, what it stood for, as well as its influence on society. He said it behoved me, as the ‘gatekeeper’, to ensure that the final product was acceptable and perfect for the consumption of the larger society.
I was also to see to it that the content affirmed the mantra of the flagship newspaper of the Daily Graphic: ‘Truth and Accuracy Every Day’.
Mr Tetteh also briefed me on the numerous columnists of the paper and asked me to pay special attention to their articles and make sure that they did not peddle falsehood or write based on hearsay, as well as issues that were not grounded on facts.
He informed me about some pending libel suits in court against the paper and cautioned me to shine my eyes and try as much as possible to avoid libel, retractions and corrections in the paper.
He advised me to take note of news stories or opinion pieces that contained unverified or unsubstantiated content that could possibly create problems for the paper and edit them out or step them down.
Armed with those pieces of information, I went for some copies of the Daily Graphic immediately I left the Editor’s office to check on columnists and the sequence of days that their articles appeared in the paper. I found out that some of them wrote interesting articles but at times went overboard. I took keen interest in their work and ensured that it conformed with the editorial standards of the paper.
I later had a meeting with the Deputy Editor, Mr K.K. Inkoom, who also supported the Night Desk while he was at post, and my deputy, Mr Samuel Stephenson Bio.
The two briefed me on what pertained at the Night Desk and the processes that pages went through — from page editors through the Design Unit to the Image Unit, where impositions and portable document formats (pdfs) were composed before they were finally exported to the press.
First day at Editorial Conference
Just as my meeting with Mr Inkoom and Mr Bio was about to end, the News Editor, Nehemiah Kwaku Owusu-Achiaw, began summoning the team to convene in the conference room for the afternoon editorial conference.
Even though I had been with GCGL all that while, I had little knowledge of what pertained at the Daily Graphic Editorial Conference. The style at the Daily Graphic was slightly different from what I was used to at The Mirror and the Junior Graphic.
At my maiden editorial conference, the Editor, who chaired the meeting, introduced me to the rest of the team members and officially welcomed me to their fold. He urged the rest of the team to cooperate and support me, so that we produced the quality, error-free paper, the Daily Graphic.
After the routine processes were completed and stories had been selected for the next day’s edition, the meeting ended and we went back to continue with the production process. It was a nice experience on my first day and, since then, the schedule had continued up to today when I have less than a week before I take a bow on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, to begin my terminal leave.
Responsibilities
Working on the Night Desk, even though exciting because I have the luxury of looking at the work of everybody in the chain, including the Editor, is not a very pleasant thing because it’s the desk that carries the greatest responsibility among all the desks in the newsroom. The Night Editor is the ‘gatekeeper’, what others describe as the goalkeeper of the team, and whenever there is an error in the paper, he is held responsible.
I have had very disturbing mornings when there were errors in the paper. Early in the morning, the editor would call and ask for explanation as to why an error appeared in the paper. Those calls usually spoilt my day and had a toll on my input.
I have been the Night Editor under three editors — Mr Tetteh, Mr Inkoom, who acted briefly, and currently Mr Kobby Asmah. Each one had his style of demanding answers when errors appeared in the paper. However, I have managed to deal with the situation, and their actions, sometimes punitive, had helped me to build my capacity.
It is based on this that I can safely say that during my tenure as the Night Editor, errors in the paper were reduced drastically, even though there are still a few areas we are working on to achieve perfection. There has also been great improvement in timelines.
The writer is the Night Editor of the Daily Graphic
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