When I work for The Economist: more on bylines, some in the third person

(Apologies for the horrendous reposting. I couldn’t work out how to change the font. And us journalists are big fat fans of continuity.)

I am worryingly excited about the fact that both Adrian Monck and Andreas Kluth (who is definitely not sarcastically attractively named…) have commented on my blog. And am even more excited about the fact that I have contributed in some way to the “great byline debate”. Here are some final thoughts:

I actually, despite below, have decided that I greatly respect The Economist’s lack of bylines, and reasons for them. David Christopher’s right, and I also appreciate Lara’s indecision. Here’s my attempt to explain an initial desire for bylines:

Kluth says that to not include a byline in a Special Report (in The Economist) would be too cruel, because a Special Report is the author’s baby. Scarily enough, for us “freelance” (read City student) journalists, any story is a very well loved baby. When editors don’t give me a byline I think they are being too cruel. Their “just a NIB” comments cut deep. Let me tell you a story (are you sitting comfortably?):

Once upon a time there was a girl called Katrina who was on work experience at an unnamed but easily identifiable freesheet finance and business newspaper. On this placement, Katrina was told to write an advice piece on the personal finance of city bankers – i.e. what they should do with their money. Katrina was understandably perturbed as she had no knowledge of personal finance beyond her own student bank account, and had no doubt that city bankers knew what to do with their own money without being advised by her. She spent a whole day researching (learning…) and interviewing various financial advisers and experts, and wrote the article. The next day the nice big article was printed but – SACRE BLEU – no byline. Katrina could have killed.

Right, that’s enough of the worrying third person. I have now realised, however, that normal (read not-City student) journalists do not trade in bylines as if they’re oil. A willingness to give up bylines has gained my respect, and I will now will read The Economist and desire them no longer.
Roll on the day when I can treat bylines as much less rare and scarily valuable commodity. As I said on Kluth’s blog, roll on the day when I work for The Economist.