Angry People in Local Newspapers is a visual medium, which means we want news articles with pictures in them.
And – as a rule – the picture should be of people who are angry at something.
But rules are made to be broken, so we thought a submission guide would help you through the maze of arbitrary rules that exist only in our head.
Submission should have a picture: Otherwise it’s all a bit pointless. Only in very exceptional circumstances (eg the story is weird enough to go on the page without angry people) will we publish an angry people story without a good picture.
Context is everything: A head-and-shoulders shot from the archives of an aggrieved councillor won’t cut the mustard. We’ve got to see what’s making them furious, with documentary evidence. Like this chap here, who has done it perfectly.
Punching up, not punching down: We’ve stopped doing stories of people in dire situations because of their own misfortune. We didn’t run the story about the Hull family living in a tent (pictured below) because it is mocking the less fortunate in society. It’s a great photo, horrible story.
No injured or distressed kiddiewinks: Stories with kiddiewinks and their angry parents are fair game, but not if they’ve come to harm in any way.
No stories where people can be mocked about disability, gender, sexuality or race: We arbitrarily enforce this rule because with a group as large as ours, we have some terrible people on board who think being a troll is funny. It is not.
This rule also includes a blanket ban on stories about travellers, as they seem to bring out the very worst in people.
Weird news, Dull news, A-Boards, Efits, Readers’ Letters: We like to mix things up a bit, so we’ll always accept any of these. We’d rather not accept Eifts of suspects for sex crimes, as that makes it a little distasteful to laugh at them.
Pet subjects we like: Seagulls, Peter Andre, people having problems with Virgin Media.
Fake News: Yes please, but we’ll only post one a day. The Sunday Sport is largely fake news, but done as art.
Court reports: A court report has to be truly outstanding to get onto the page. Do bear in mind that reporters latch on to “funny” aspects of a court case in order to get clicks.
So a story where the headline is about a man head-butting a goat might actually be a minor part of a distressing case about alcohol-driven domestic violence. And we’re not into that.
Angry mayor says: Remember these rules, kids! Then we can all have fun.