Business News


Telegraph People By John Lamb


The dramas and fun behind the print production of multi-edition big-city evening newspapers in their pre- digital heyday have been captured in a new book. Telegraph People – written by the Chamber’s press and PR director John Lamb – looks behind the scenes of evening papers when they were the main source of local, national and international news and sport, printed live throughout the day and delivered to tens of thousands of homes. Lamb traces two decades of the


Coventry Evening Telegraph and its PINK Saturday night sports edition at its Corporation Street headquarters. He was a copyboy when the


Telegraph occupied the new building in 1960 and progressed to become its assistant editor, broken by spells on the Birmingham Evening Mail, London Evening News, the Sun, the News of the World and the Birmingham Post. Lamb, who is also vice-chairman of


the Birmingham Press Club, said: “It really was an incredible time to work in the evening newspaper industry. I would say they were the halcyon days before printed evening newspapers disappeared and the digital revolution took over. “The theory was for printed editions to become ‘community


newspapers’ while their digital platforms handled breaking news. But printed circulations have plummeted and the jury is still out on whether their digital replacements are working. “My story is of an age when print


was booming with full staffing; when the Coventry Evening Telegraph sold 120,000 copies a night; when the circulation of the Evening Mail was nudging 350,000; the London Evening News reached 750,000.” There are dozens of pictures,


illustrations and stories on how the headlines were created. Paul Faulkner, chief executive of


Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “Having worked closely with John for over four years, his passion and enthusiasm for journalism and in particular regional news shines as brightly as ever. “The Chamber press team, led by


John, produce a prodigious amount of quality content every day across our various channels, and that is testament to his skills and experience. “I know that writing the book has


been a labour of love for John, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing it published and reading about the various scrapes and sights John has witnessed during his long and distinguished career.”


Telegraph People (ISBN 978-1-908837-12-7, price £10.95) is published by Takahe Publishing Ltd, Coventry, and will be available at bookshops, local newsagents and on Amazon from Friday 6 September.


September 2019 CHAMBERLINK 33


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