Mal's Memories service award (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories service award

DO you remember when newspapers cost just a few old pence?

Of course, wages were a lot different as well. When I started as a junior reporter on the old Barry Herald my first weekly wage packet was a princely £2.14s.0d.

But there was something satisfying about receiving a wage packet with real money in it every Friday.

Two years later I joined the Penarth Times where the biggest proportion of staff was in the printing department, the production of newspapers being much more labour intensive in those days of hot metal.

The printers had regular morning and afternoon tea breaks - and to make sure they did not go on too long, proprietor/editor Mr K Rowland Harris had a button on his desk which rang a bell in the composing room to signal break over - back to work.

The bell also came in handy in times of emergency.

If some irate reader had breached the inner sanctum and was giving Mr Harris a hard time he would send a signal to the printers that he needed them to come to his rescue.

The reporters were much nearer, but obviously Mr Harris did not think we were up to that particular task.

Even worse, if we were the ones having a hard time from someone we had inadvertently upset in print, we had to fend for ourselves.

Although we got on reasonably well, there was always a bit of friction between editorial staff and printers. You must remember that in those days it was the printers who held most of the power and journalists were pretty much the poor relations.

But for most of us it was a labour of love, and we wouldn't have swapped places for anything.

* Malcolm Davies is a former editor of the Penarth Times. Mal's Memories are on the Penarth Times web site www.thisispenarth.co.uk