By Martin Williams, Deputy News Editor
Do you ever wonder why you bother? Our dedicated team of reporters contacted every mayor in the area, organised photographs and diligently took down the details. You can read all about it on page 28 of this week's edition.
"Are you looking forward to the year ahead? Representing the people of your town must be a real honour? Will you work hard for the community? Are we all going to be better off a year from now?"
Readers, these people are here to represent you and I, but you wouldn't know it sometimes.
There are exceptions. We have some truly gifted, caring and impressive councillors. Many of them do a lot for their town or village, and we respect that.
But amazingly on Thursday morning one elected member rang to complain that his picture was slightly smaller than those of the other mayors! I'm sure Llanrwst's Edgar Parry is a good man but his ego must have been severely bruised for him to pick up the phone and whinge to my hard-working colleague Samantha Castle, who does all she can to publicise events and stories from across the Conwy Valley.
She does it with pride and attention to detail, but the plaudits are few and far between. That's the way it is, journalists aren't exactly the most popular people.
Incidentally, the photograph of Bay of Colwyn mayor Laurette Danson was 5mm deeper than that of Cllr Parry's. Llanfairfechan's Gwyneth Thomas can be seen in all her splendour and that photo is bigger than Edgar's, but that's what's known in the trade as a "deep" picture, and fits the space provided.
Our brilliant team of sub-editors are basically experts in the art of jigsaw. They get given a space, we fling across the copy and they make it look good, hammering square pegs into round holes. Do they get a pat on the back? Rarely.
And together - united in our relief at having produced another quality newspaper - we await Thursday morning, when the complaints roll in. Not many of them, but some, and they are usually the most mundane and ridiculous gripes you've ever heard. This was one of them.
So stand up Edgar Parry, mayor of Llanrwst! No actually, sit down again Edgar. We don't have room for a full-length shot...
Those measurements in full
Alun Barrett (Llandudno) 47mm x 65mm
Helen Roberts (Conwy) 65mm x 93mm
Gwyneth Thomas (Llanfairfechan) 113mm x 65mm
Laurette Danson (Colwyn Bay) 73mm x 70mm
Edgar Parry (Llanrwst) 72mm x 65mm
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Oscar wrote...
It comes as no suprise to me whatsoever.
They have such ego's they put some so called celebrities to shame!
Keep up the good work
Posted by: Oscar | June 14, 2007 9:33 AM