Glue

Over in our Reigate office, and I'm wrestling with a problem that comes up more often than you might expect.

What do you do when you pick up a story about somebody who has previously been a supporter of your paper?

The Advertiser's sister title in Dorking has landed a bizarre story about a newsagent convicted of putting superglue into the locks of pensioners' homes.

We've no idea why he was doing it, and since he denied the charges and offered no mitigation we're unlikely to ever find out.

Two issues: 1) The newsagent in question was recently named the Advertiser's local trader of the year and 2) His shop sells a good few hundred copies of the paper each week.

To be honest, there wasn't really any doubt that we'd put the story on the front page but, in doing so, we know it will probably hit this week's sale.

I don't expect he'll have copies on display, and I certainly don't think he'll be putting a bill poster up outside his shop plugging the story.

This kind of thing crops up quite often with supermarkets.

More and more papers are sold at out-of-town superstores these days, so I've always got mixed feelings when the newsdesks come forward with stories about people finding dead frogs in their bags of lettuce and the like. We've had papers pulled from the shelves of various outlets in recent months, and it really can put a dent in your circulation.

And don't even get me started on stories knocking estate agents - they can cause even more trouble.

The bottom line always has to be to print the story regardless of the commercial consequences, but in doing so we can quite often end up paying a price for it.

Back over to Croydon soon for a meeting with education chief Maria Gatland. I'd forgotten this meeting was diaried when I posted yesterday's blog entry but hey ho, I'm sure she'll take it in good spirits.