November 2005 - Andover Advertiser

A varied meeting of presentations, fundraising and speakers filled the November meeting of Andover Women in Business Club. With around half the membership present, members and guests were pleased to see a presentation of funds raised through the Club to the local hospice and hear the work of Andover Advertiser Editor, Joe Scicluna.

Meeting at one of Andover ’s newest restaurants, everyone enjoyed a delicious Italian meal at Sambuca for the meeting. Always keen to find new venues for its monthly meetings, the Club was delighted with its latest choice, receiving excellent service and finding the upstairs venue perfect for its meeting format.

Sarah Redhead, Joe Scicluna and Tessa Makepeace (President)

Following a cheque presentation by former President, Larch Gauld, Sarah Readhead, Trust Director thanked the Club for their generosity on behalf of the Countess of Brecknock Hospice Trust. Following the presentation, a raffle held to raise funds for the current President’s charity, Enham, raised over £60.

Joe Scicluna, Editor of Andover Advertiser, then talked to the members about how he came to move into journalism and his work with newspapers. Following a career with the military, reporting in dangerous war zones, he returned to Andover to work on the local paper. His talk centred on the trials and tribulations of being a newspaper editor and how every local paper must be the ‘heart of’ and a ‘part of’ the community it serves.

Making people feel comfortable in his presence and earning the trust and respect of his readers is key to Joe’s success. Local papers need to report the news, good and bad, and do not endeavour to sensationalise things that happen in a community. Indeed, Joe sited several instances when he has been called to account in the street or congratulated by happy readers who have benefited from positive publicity about an event.

Despite reducing trends in newspaper sales, the Andover Advertiser is holding steady, but its staff cannot become complacent. It is essential to hold the interest of its readers and with its current readership of adults from their mid 20’s up, innovative ways are always being sought to encourage new, young readers, with the introduction of reports featuring local music and performing talent or sporting activities.

The arrival of new technology some years ago was a challenge for the Newspaper but has greatly improved its editorial production. The inevitable reduction of manpower caused by the introduction of computers now means the Andover Advertiser now manages with only four reporters, instead of the original seven, despite often being 70 – 80 pages in length.

Following the guidelines of the United Kingdom Code of Practice, the Andover Advertiser is proud to have journalists with a conscience, who will deal with stories sensibly and with sensitivity. Bad news travels fastest, but the paper is always keen to know what is happening in the area. Its weekly production should mirror what is going on in the community and therefore needs the help of those in the community to keep it informed.

Ultimately Joe is fascinated by words and by language, and acknowledges punctuation is a powerful tool, illustrating cases where a single comma, put somewhere differently within a sentence, can completely change its meaning. Acknowledging some of the idiosyncrasies of the English language, he finished wryly by asking why ‘punctuation’ is such a long word!