Read Online Maximum Exposure by Jenny Harper - Free Book Online Page B

never made enough allowance for travel, especially at harvest time when the combines were all out or in winter when the roads could be lethal.
    ‘He’s axed the story I was working on.’
    ‘No, really?’ Daisy said sympathetically, working out that she’d have to take the shortcut via Heriton and pray there were no tractors to slow her down.
    ‘And there’s no way your butcher shop photo’s going to get front page.’
    Now he’d caught her attention. ‘What?’
    ‘“Stupid trivia. We must do better.” I quote.’
    ‘You’re joking!’
    He shook his head. ‘Would I joke about something like that? No, you’ll find out soon enough. He wants “real news”. “A big story.” “Less of this provincial nonsense.”’
    ‘Like what?’
    Murdoch shook his head. ‘Sharon’s in with him just now, discussing it.’
    ‘They can’t make up news. If it happens it happens.’
    ‘Maybe he wants something international. A take on Obama. The state of the yen. Famine in Africa.’
    ‘ The Herald ’s a local paper, for Chrissake.’ Daisy’s jaw had dropped. ‘We publish local stories. Stories that interest people locally. That’s the definition of a local newspaper.’
    ‘Tell me something I don’t know.’ Murdoch grimaced. ‘“Drama. Something hard-hitting”,’ he went on in a reasonable approximation of Jay Bond’s cut-glass tones.
    ‘Blimey,’ said Daisy. ‘Where are we going to get that?’ She was cross about her sausages. How was she going to top that as an image?
    Dishy Dave, seeing their huddle, joined them.
    ‘Heard about the sausages, Dave?” Daisy asked.
    ‘What about them?’ said Dave, who had just filed the story.
    ‘Axed. Well, butchered at least. Relegated to inside.’
    ‘You’re kidding. Why?’
    ‘Not hot enough,’ said Daisy.
    ‘You should’ve griddled them,’ grinned Murdoch. ‘Very funny.’
    ‘So what’s hot?’ asked Dave.
    ‘Not the public toilets anyway,’ Daisy conjectured, thinking of her Diary.
    ‘Meeting’s over,’ warned Murdoch, seeing Jay’s door open and Sharon emerging.
    ‘Time out, everyone,’ Sharon called, slapping her file onto her desk and waving her arms, beckoning. ‘I need to brief you all.’
    It was unusual, to say the least. Being a small office, they were all pretty much aware of what was going on and Sharon normally kept tabs on all the stories simply by keeping her ears open and wandering round chatting to the reporters. Formal meetings were a rare event.
    ‘New priorities. More punch. Bigger stories. Less trivia. Murdoch, you’re to make Westminster, the Scottish Parliament, and international affairs your priorities –’ Murdoch gaped, his fading eyes round with surprise, ‘Dave, you’ll concentrate on the prison, the hospital, and the Council, taking over my responsibilities, and I’ll be doing more investigative work.’
    They all stared at her before Murdoch, a cynical hack to the core, challenged, ‘Investigating what, precisely?’
    Sharon was evasive. ‘Whatever comes up. I’ll get leads. We’re looking for big stories.’
    Dave asked tentatively, ‘What about the small stories? The school plays, the local WRI meetings, the charity stuff?’
    Sharon waved an airy hand. ‘We’ll use fewer of those, of course. We’re going to pull this paper up by its bootstraps.’
    ‘Jesus,’ said Daisy, stunned.
    ‘But what about …’ Murdoch started before Sharon cut in again, ‘It’s about standards, Murdoch. We’ve let them slip. We’re going to be a campaigning newspaper. We’ll take up big issues. The economy. The environment. The health service.’
    ‘What?’ said Daisy.
    ‘And in the meantime,’ Sharon rounded on her, ‘you’d better get out there and get a big picture. We need a front page.’
    ‘Big picture? Of what, precisely?’ Daisy felt panicky. She glanced over to where Tiny Ted was sitting on her desk, surrounded by coins and sweets from her pocket.
    ‘I dunno. Use your imagination, Daisy.