Click here for notes about contributing copy
Ken Ashton has been a journalist for most of his life, working on a national, evening, and local newspapers; he’s been a sports writer, covering major events, won press awards, and even found time to be mayor of Prestatyn. He took a change of direction in 1990 and became a journalism tutor and now spends many happy hours passing on his wisdom and experience.
Garth Gibbs worked on the Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg and the Evening Post in Port Elizabeth before helping to launch a newspaper in Zambia in 1966. He moved to England in 1969 where he worked for Reuters, the Evening News, and for the Daily Mirror (more than 20 years). He traveled extensively before becoming the Mirror royal correspondent and later a columnist.
Based on nine years as a copy and layout editor/headline writer at the National Enquirer, Jack Grimshaw believes he’s had more fiction published than Stephen King. Appearing, through the years, on the dean’s list or the shit list at the Salford City Reporter; Western Daily Press; Manchester Evening News; Sports Form (Las Vegas) and OC Weekly (Southern California), he now writes and smokes a daily cigar in Orange County.
Patrick O’Gara was at the Daily Mirror from 1962 to 1984. He then worked briefly for Today, Hello! magazine, and The Star. In 1989 he joined, and later edited, The Blade, in Toledo, Ohio, USA until retiring in 2003. He now lives with his wife, a dog, and six chickens in Moratinos, Spain.
Eddy Rawlinson worked as a photographer and engraver at the Burnley Express. Joined the Manchester Evening News then the Daily Express as a photographer and later northern publicity manager. Left to start the first free motoring paper in Britain, subsidised by running a pub. Joined the Daily Mirror as a photographer and retired as a northern picture editor.
Bob Waterhouse was a features sub and reporter with the Guardian in Manchester during the 1960s. Turning freelance, he launched the Withington Reporter (1978) and North West Times (1988). He also launched editor of North West Business Insider (1991) and the North West Enquirer (2006). His book about Manchester national newspaper history, The Other Fleet Street, was published in 2004.
Don Walker, born in the East End of London, worked on the St Pancras Chronicle, in Camden. Joined the Daily Mirror as a casual from the Reading Evening Post in 1964 and as a staff sub in 1966. A feature writer on the Mirror for 10 years from 1968 he returned to subbing in the seventies. Chief sub in features in the eighties, and group systems editor from 1986 until retirement in 2000.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome at all times.
The deadline is the Sunday before publication (the site is updated on Fridays). And yes, we appreciate that a little bit of deadline adrenalin often helps, but very few of the stories are time-sensitive and we have other things we could be doing during the week.
Exceptions can always be considered – subject to arrangement and depending on urgency.
Please contact the editor first (it avoids duplication and may save effort). The address is at the top right of this page.
Don’t use words like Ranter as a catchline or subject line (believe it or not, it’s already been used). If you re-send copy, please use the original catchline but mark it RESEND, or mark it [2] or whatever, otherwise it causes confusion here.
Better still, it helps a lot if you make any changes before pressing the SEND button…
Copy is rarely more than lightly subbed. If the editor doesn’t understand something, he’ll probably come back to you, when he has nothing better to do, with a query (if you object to subs’ queries, please don’t send a copy). If he doesn’t believe something, he’ll probably ask you about it.
If he doesn’t understand it, you may never hear from him again.
IF you want to save the editor some work, please bear in mind that the STYLE, such as it is, goes like this:
Body copy is currently set in 12pt Arial with 6pt spacing between paragraphs (no double paragraph spacing is therefore necessary).
Single quotes, with “doubles”, if really necessary, inside them.
Double-spacing is not necessary after full stops.
Paragraphs are not indented.
Words like editor take the lower case.
Newspaper titles are italicized.
Once requested, Word attachments are preferred. The default language is English (UK).
Headline suggestions are always welcome but may be changed, according to lunch.