By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor
THIS week's edition was something of a moveable feast as deadline approached. Usually I know pretty much which story is going on which page by around 10.30am on a Wednesday, and by a Wednesday there's only really the front section of the paper left to finish (pages 1-15 roughly). The rest of the paper is often already done by deadline day.
But this week all the best laid plans refused to stay still, and it was often all dependent on outside forces outside our control. So I had to draw up a kind of flow diagram - like one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books - so I knew all the different permutations of pages if x, y or even z happened!
There was a stage where I didn't know what we were going to put on the front of the Conwy Valley edition - if North Wales Police released a statement and photo from the family of tragic Lee Thompson-Walker in time, we'd lead with that, but if that didn't come through in time we'd go with a story about the Post Office closures in the Valley. But if the Post Offices did go on the front, that would mean I'd have to have three versions of an inside page to carry the news we did have on Lee Thompson-Walker....
There was similar indecision surrounding the Colwyn Bay front page - we had the story we eventually led with about Victoria Pier owner Steve Hunt's current financial tribulations, but we needed a third party to verify a few points before we could run with it safely, and they weren't going to be free until 1.30pm... So we had to work on a back-up lead story for the Bay, which has yet to see the light of day (tune in next week for that one, folks!) but we were unsure whether we'd get it finished in time because of yet another third party obstacle.
So it was a bit hairy, but immense fun working on adrenaline alone! Not every week is like that - as I said, we usually have firmer plans by that stage of the week - but when it's all up in the air like that, it reminds you how lucky you are to be in a profession where no two days are the same!
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