BEN CLISSITT, newly appointed head of sport across The Guardian, Observer and guardian.co.uk, recently outlined for Press Gazette a typical, pre-Olympic working week. Here’s some highlights
Monday
Run through our logistics for Beijing. It’s the most complex operation I think we’ve undertaken – because of the time difference, because of the 24/7 needs of the website and because all writers will be working for the website, The Guardian and The Observer, no matter which title they are affiliated to at the moment.
It’s very much a taste of the future and the scale of it
means we are sending two editors to the media centre to desk the Games. It’s the first time we’ve done this (though Brian Oliver, the sports editor at The Observer, tells me that he did the same when working for The Daily Telegraph at the 1996 Atlanta Games and that he hasn’t been back to the States since).
We’ve been through what each “platform†requires, and worked out a schedule of priorities for writers reporting from events, depending on what time the story happens. It all sounds good in theory, and it’s a great opportunity to learn.
One of my big concerns is fatigue. The Olympics are so intense and so beautifully choreographed that every day brings a welter of irresistible stories. Those reporters with less experience throw themselves into everything and burn out with an adrenaline crash after about 10 days. They are under strict instructions to take time off when told to.
Tuesday
Go for a drink with our columnist, Marina Hyde, and my deputy, Ian Prior, who will both be going to Beijing. Marina has bought a series of flip cards with pictograms of key Beijing destinations captioned in English and Mandarin so foreign visitors can communicate with local taxi drivers. The card they think will come in most useful is captioned “receipt pleaseâ€. Thankfully they missed out the card that says “six blank receipts pleaseâ€.
Wednesday
It wouldn’t be so bad if we were only having to cope with organising Beijing, but it’s also the start of the new football season… It means that we are simultaneously producing two supplements – one for Beijing and one for the big kick-off. I suggest a last-minute rejig of the Olympics booklet, which prompts dark looks from the art director, but no great vocal objections.
Thursday
In the evening I manage to get away early to go to the Albert Hall for Glyndebourne’s Coronation of Poppea, with music from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. By the end of the last duet I have entirely forgotten that Beijing exists, let alone that there will be an Olympics there in a week.
To read Clissitt’s diary of his working week in full, click here
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