Decisions; back in harness; Wakefulness
My hero - Tony Soprano - said that a bad decision is better than indecision. Whatever the overall rights and wrongs it certaily applies at the sharp end of newspaper production.
Yesterday we changed our splash plan about four times in the space of an hour. That may sound like indecision but it wasn't.
It was reflective of the ability of my team at the Echo to respond with willingness, soeed and professionalism to a rapidly changing news agenda. It was reflective too of the knowledge that they can put page one of Britain's biggest regional newspaper together in under 15 minutes.
I was able to leave the decision as late as possible because we can work well under pressure.
At 8.0am we were splashing on police receiving gangland death threats. When we saw rthe evidence it was less than compelling. Then we moved to a story about missing money at a church. Legally, it had a huge hole in it and we moved again - this time to the Merseyrail Loop line chaos. With minutes to go we learn that Jennifer Ellison may pull oput of Chicago at the Empire. A new splash? Then: sure, she's got an injuty and will miss shows in Stoke, but she's not pulling out of Liverpool yet.
Back to the trains.
And we were 10 mintes early on the press.
Had my first run since the half marathon. Three miles to West Kirby and back. Ached in the hips and spinbe, out of breath, chafing back with a vengeance. Something not right. Have felt virusey for days. Not sure how to proceed from here.
Morgan still waking up and coming through to our room every night. 1am last night. bailed out into her bed. Too tired to argue.
