<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" 
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
    xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd">
	<channel>
<title>RSS Feed</title><link>http://www.thebaron.info/index.html</link><description>Mail to The Baron</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright &#xa9; 2008-2010 The Baron &#x25cf; All rights reserved</dc:rights><dc:date>2012-05-12T17:00:09+01:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource="mailto:editor@thebaron.info" /><sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase>
<lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 May 2012 17:31:30 +0100</lastBuildDate><item><title>Horst Faas</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-05-12T17:00:09+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/b6c11d1281d1e2215bcc97c4431f0eb8-548.php#unique-entry-id-548</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/b6c11d1281d1e2215bcc97c4431f0eb8-548.php#unique-entry-id-548</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I was saddened to read in today&rsquo;s Daily Telegraph an&nbsp;obituary of Horst Faas,&nbsp;the great AP photographer and pictures editor&nbsp;who died May 10, aged 79.   Not a Reuters man, but a great man nonetheless, who will be remembered admiringly and even fondly by many Reuter veterans of Vietnam and other war zones.   Undoubtedly an iconic and larger-than-life figure of the combat zones and one of the real&nbsp;greats of the business.


&nbsp;


A couple of Faas-related quotes have stayed with me through the years:


Young reporter &ndash; &ldquo;Horst, why do you stay so long in Vietnam?&rdquo;


Horst &ndash; &ldquo;Show me a better var and I vill go.&rdquo;


&nbsp;


Vietnam reporters&rsquo; quiz question: Where is the safest place in Vietnam?   Answer: Just behind Horst Faas.


&nbsp;


A&nbsp;truly memorable character.


&nbsp;


BOB HART (Reuters 1964-2002; Saigon bureau 1966-67)
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-05-03T22:57:08+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/5ddc64903d861132ac8f77c891dfaf6f-547.php#unique-entry-id-547</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/5ddc64903d861132ac8f77c891dfaf6f-547.php#unique-entry-id-547</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nick, as he described himself, was a go-between, bringing people in different areas together and helping them understand each other.


He probably didn&rsquo;t expect to bring my wife, Janet, and me together but he did just that in 1981.   I was bureau chief in Amsterdam at the time and attended a meeting in Nick&rsquo;s office in London about the then new &ldquo;video-editing&rdquo; system.   Janet (then Ellingham) was one of the &ldquo;technical&rdquo; people there and two years later we were married.


Nick was always so interested in so much.   He was full of curiosity and enthusiasm, and often indignation at something he felt was wrong.   It was a treat to read his concise but lively end-of-year greetings, so unlike the lengthy documents some people circulate at Christmas/New Year.


Janet notes that she, Nick and engineer &lsquo;Raj&rsquo; Rajeswaran met on many occasions to discuss how video-editing terminals could be made to work for journalists in bureaux around the world.   In her words:


&ldquo;Nick&rsquo;s sheer enthusiasm entranced both Raj and me.   Nick would ask for something and we would tell him it was technically impossible.   Nick would deflate in his chair and then would bounce back up with a &lsquo;solution&rsquo;.  


&ldquo;Again we would come up with technical opposition and down went Nick into his chair like a punctured football, only to bounce up again with yet another idea of a way round the problem, equally technically impossible.   This often went on for more than half an hour.   However, we rarely left the meeting without some sort of solution being &lsquo;agreed&rsquo;, often with me having to go back to the manufacturer of the terminal with yet another complete design change of hardware or software!  


&ldquo;Nick&rsquo;s enthusiasm got us through and the terminals were introduced into many bureaux.&rdquo;


 


ROGER JEAL
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Compensation</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-29T16:12:08+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/8890647f4247063f5b59960e6ebddbe5-546.php#unique-entry-id-546</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/8890647f4247063f5b59960e6ebddbe5-546.php#unique-entry-id-546</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I couldn&rsquo;t agree more with John Chadwick&rsquo;s comment [●  Compensation].   The old term &ldquo;allowances&rdquo; applied more or less democratically and transparently across the board to all Reuters staff from senior managers and administrative staff to journalists and technicians posted to countries outside their home base.   It covered items like housing, education for one&rsquo;s children, occasional home leave, special clothing for extreme climates, etc &ndash; all of which have been, or are in the process of being, abolished across the new US-based company.   Now we have an opaque terminology that allows a select few, chosen on an untransparent basis, to benefit from hefty additions to salaries already well out of line with those of the vast majority of TR staff, and the amount of which is determined by considerations of &ldquo;inconvenience&rdquo; suffered in their already highly-rewarded posts.


BOB EVANS
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-28T12:43:21+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/3150e9a2231e1f6fc7646fe55e7167be-545.php#unique-entry-id-545</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/3150e9a2231e1f6fc7646fe55e7167be-545.php#unique-entry-id-545</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[We have been so touched by the tributes, messages, cards and the large number of Nick&rsquo;s former colleagues who attended his funeral last week.&nbsp;  It really lifted our spirits at a time when they were very low.&nbsp;  Nick would have felt so honoured.


Thank you all.


DAPHNE CARTER, CHERYL & BEVERLEY
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-23T12:31:10+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/47a24c9a0156d59ceab08b64524f4c89-544.php#unique-entry-id-544</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/47a24c9a0156d59ceab08b64524f4c89-544.php#unique-entry-id-544</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nick Carter was not only one of the most skilled and helpful people I ever worked with but also the nicest.


DAVE BETTS
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-21T23:16:09+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/491602047bbc44009a60bf846b10c707-543.php#unique-entry-id-543</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/491602047bbc44009a60bf846b10c707-543.php#unique-entry-id-543</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[For Reuter correspondents of the 1960s to the 1990s, Nick was one of those stalwart figures &ndash; with Ronnie Cooper, Jack Henry, Nobby Clarke, Jack Hartzman, Dave Matthew, Jim Flannery, Jim Forrester, Pat Massey &ndash; who represented over four decades strength, stability and consistency on The Desk.   Nick had the best qualities of all of them, including patience and readiness to listen to the angry complaints of would-be superstars out in the field over some offending rewrite or slight rephrasing of our golden copy and then gently massage bruised egos with a few velvet words of praise and a reminder that deskers, like correspondents, were all fallible in the pursuit of the common aim.   We missed him when he moved on to other functions, as we will miss him now at Reuter Society meetings and the Baron&rsquo;s Bash.


BOB EVANS
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-21T23:01:24+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/2f8a2ac5c3268dba01d06e19dcfa5a39-542.php#unique-entry-id-542</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/2f8a2ac5c3268dba01d06e19dcfa5a39-542.php#unique-entry-id-542</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[What a remarkable document is Nick Carter&rsquo;s self-obit.&nbsp;  It&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;d call going out with a bang &ndash; but a solid, highly informative bang, the work of a real pro.&nbsp;  It&rsquo;s at one and the same time a key company-man&rsquo;s workaday self-portrait and an important contribution to the history of that company, truly enlightening for anyone interested in what made The Old Firm click in the new electronic age.&nbsp;  In addition it&rsquo;s a model piece of obituary-writing and wire service reporting in general, something for apprentices to emulate, the straight goods!   Terrific.&nbsp;  All this and a nice guy too behind all that impressive factuality.


CY FOX
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-20T22:00:13+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/83819a5c823176d8437210a79a1168b4-541.php#unique-entry-id-541</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/83819a5c823176d8437210a79a1168b4-541.php#unique-entry-id-541</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nick Carter&rsquo;s achievements in both the journalistic and technical fields have been well documented.   I know of few journalists who adapted so well to the changing world of Reuters since the 1980s.   He was also a fine, always helpful, colleague when we worked together.   He was so incredibly hard-working that, sharing an office with him,&nbsp;I found it hard to keep&nbsp;pace with him.   In short he gave his all for the company.   Almost everything I learned about Reuters&rsquo; technical side came from him.   Nick was incredibly calm as death approached.   His letters to me after he learned he had not long to live were almost nonchalant.   He said he had &ldquo;kind of got used to the idea&rdquo; of his death and that, while he didn&rsquo;t like it, &ldquo;when you gotta go, you gotta go.&rdquo;


&nbsp;


RON COOPER
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-20T13:00:16+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/abbab3b37fdfb5cd5dbe844bb44a843d-540.php#unique-entry-id-540</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/abbab3b37fdfb5cd5dbe844bb44a843d-540.php#unique-entry-id-540</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Having just learned (mea culpa)&nbsp;of Nick&rsquo;s death, there is little I can add to the tributes already paid.&nbsp;  But I would like to record my appreciation of his help to me when I joined Reuters as an extremely nervous and totally inexperienced Graduate Trainee in the autumn of 1958.&nbsp;  My first few months were spent on the then Central Desk (often next to the equally kind and helpful Peter Mosley).&nbsp;  Nick was one of&nbsp;a small team of excellent Copytasters.&nbsp;  Although often under pressure and I guess irritated by the presence of an untrained necomer on the Desk, Nick was always courteous and kind, ready to spend a few valuable minutes instructing the newcomer on the basic tenets of Reuter journalism.&nbsp;  We met again in the autumn of 1964 when, having just finished a stint in Peking as it was then called and I still call it, I was a member of the reporting team (and my wife Mary was a copytaker)&nbsp;at the Tokyo Olympics, where the&nbsp;always unflappable and jovial Nick was running the London Desk operation with his usual professionalism.&nbsp; 


&nbsp;


ADAM KELLETT-LONG
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Compensation</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-19T17:18:49+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/885c47cc0cec096ae795c27be93c301f-539.php#unique-entry-id-539</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/885c47cc0cec096ae795c27be93c301f-539.php#unique-entry-id-539</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Dear me, how language changes!   I just glanced at Thomson Reuters&rsquo; latest lavishly produced letter to shareholders.   I hadn&rsquo;t realised the company&rsquo;s executives were working in such hazardous conditions.   They&rsquo;ve all been awarded &ldquo;Compensation&rdquo;&nbsp;of hundreds of thousands, running into millions of dollars.   Sorry to be so out-of-date, but my Oxford dictionary defines &ldquo;compensation&rdquo; as &rdquo;something, typically money, awarded to someone as a recompense for loss, injury or suffering&rdquo;.   We used to call it a wage or a salary.   Might be nice to have details of injuries suffered (certainly the English language has taken a knock).


&nbsp;


JOHN CHADWICK
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-19T10:35:14+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/63785e282e5321bf64f9d7f110a1a0b0-538.php#unique-entry-id-538</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/63785e282e5321bf64f9d7f110a1a0b0-538.php#unique-entry-id-538</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nick sometimes came over as a techie but in truth was a fine journalist.  


I first knew him in the 1950s when I was a junior rewrite sub and he was probably the best copytaster on the Central Desk (later World Desk) at 85 Fleet Street.   It was the toughest high-pressure job of all: focal point of the entire incoming news file which often landed in terrible shape, cables from far-flung staffers and stringers who often had little idea of how to shape their own story.   The copytaster had to select or spike, editing/rewriting urgent stories in real time and handing the rest out to the subs.   Nick always knew what he wanted from the subs and would give succinct instructions.   Sometimes these would be written in the margins and consist merely of numbers indicating, for instance, that the lead (1) was in the third para, followed by the seventh para (2), then the original first para (3) and so on.   He did all this at rapid speed.   It was a remarkable feat. 


We worked together again in the 1980s when I was called back from Hong Kong to lead the project to purchase, customise and instal in the London newsrooms the System/55 video editing system, with its Coyote terminals, which served us so well for so long.   Nick had done much spadework on our requirements and was a big help.


He was the most congenial of colleagues, possibly because we had similar backgrounds &ndash; straight into journalism from grammar school, and he and Daphne became good personal friends.   But Nick could also speak his mind; I was part of the crew at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and on my return Nick chewed me out for filing too many words.   It was a big problem back then because heavy volume often brought down the clunky editing system that had been wished upon editorial, one reason why we took matters into our own hands with System/55.


 


In the end it turned out that I was not such a dedicated geek as my good friend Nick.   While he was involved in technology to the end of his career, I tired of it after seven years and was able to escape back into journalism as Features Editor.


Nick was one of the most talented men I met at Reuters &ndash; and one of the very nicest.


PETER MOSLEY


Reuters 1957-1992
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-17T11:00:57+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/eb3121890a36a2fe3392cb03a3740273-537.php#unique-entry-id-537</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/eb3121890a36a2fe3392cb03a3740273-537.php#unique-entry-id-537</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[If Nick Carter was &ldquo;the self-proclaimed &lsquo;second meanest man in Reuters&rsquo;&rdquo; [● Rick Norsworthy], it certainly wasn&rsquo;t in spirit.   One couldn&rsquo;t have a fairer boss.   He was one of the few who actually did an annual appraisal (or at least showed me one he&rsquo;d done).   I thought it entirely fair, except for one line which said, not entirely unfairly, that I had a tendency to question decisions.   When I suggested it seemed a bit unbalanced in the context, Nick smiled, added a few words, then showed me it again.   &ldquo;Trouble is, he is sometimes right&rdquo; he&rsquo;d added.&nbsp;  &ldquo;Is that better?&rdquo;   he asked.   Who could argue with that?&nbsp;  His set-up of broadcasting was both a boon and a curse in return for the extra money&nbsp;correspondents supposedly received.   It was a fun if at times exhausting challenge,&nbsp;but didn&rsquo;t bring the huge cash rewards some people thought we were getting &ndash; three quid a package!&nbsp;  During the Yom Kippur war, on top of everything else, one was sending packages to Mutual Broadcasting in the US through the night after a day&rsquo;s slog for nearly two weeks.   Three pounds a pop, while one&rsquo;s UPI counterpart was getting 30 or more dollars a piece (not a package).   But they amazingly brought in fan mail, which print by-lines rarely did.   Much later the fee was upped to eight pounds but sadly the service didn&rsquo;t last much longer.&nbsp;   Thanks Nick for your support over the years.


COLIN BICKLER
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-12T16:58:51+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/99b8449a1a6762c5351166c019b2cbdd-536.php#unique-entry-id-536</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/99b8449a1a6762c5351166c019b2cbdd-536.php#unique-entry-id-536</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nick&rsquo;s role in moving Reuters into the world of computers and then the full digital age cannot be over-stressed.   The behind the scenes mechanics could easily have resulted in engineers and technologists becoming the de facto editors by imposing limits which the technology inherently carried.   Instead, Nick and other journalists who were &ldquo;closet techies&rdquo; took the challenge of learning and staying abreast of technology, working with techs to ensure user needs were met and pushing scientists to go further in developing what editorial staff and customers required.   Reuters became a world leader in communications technologies as a result of such efforts, at one stage holding seven US patents in new technology and forcing The Wall Street Journal in a page one story to name it the most technically advanced communications company in the world.   At a management seminar in the early 90s, I spoke with a co-attendee from the CIA, admiring their technologies in communications.   &ldquo;I only wish we had what you do,&rdquo; he replied.   Nick was a leader among the many who took us there.


&nbsp;


MIKE REILLY
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-12T13:17:11+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/9abc74a0360466e7d4f5141e961a035c-535.php#unique-entry-id-535</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/9abc74a0360466e7d4f5141e961a035c-535.php#unique-entry-id-535</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nick Carter.   As for many other schoolboys in the forties, I imagine, he was a rough-and-tough private detective somewhat akin to Bulldog Drummond and later James Bond.   I&rsquo;m happy to have known the real Nick Carter and am deeply saddened by the news of his death, though I&rsquo;d known he was having rather a rough time of late.   Despite this, we&rsquo;d remained in touch by mail, mainly reminiscing about the good and the bad things at Reuters.   For me, never an addict of new technology, Nick was a genius.   The first time I worked with him closely was during the 1972 Olympics in Munich.   I&rsquo;d been sent over in advance to organise the Reuter reporting&nbsp;bureau in readiness for the big event.   By that time, Nick had already been at work for 18 months, masterminding all the communications complexities.   &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just a nuts-and-bolts man, John&rdquo;, he told me modestly, but he was much more than that.   One of the organisers in Munich glanced approvingly at one of Reuters&rsquo; detailed technical requests and said: &ldquo;Mr Carter should be working for us&rdquo;.   By that time, I&rsquo;d already had the benefit of his considerable know-how.   A few years earlier, my Cairo bureau had been selected as one of four key news centres to launch a radio service aimed initially at America&rsquo;s Mutual Broadcasting Service.   Nick had already done all that &ldquo;nuts-and-bolts&rdquo; work&nbsp;at head office.   At the Cairo end, working from a small office in the television centre, things were rather hit-and-miss.   The scheduled radio calls rarely came through on time, and from the other end Nick was ever ready with some pertinent advice.   For the first broadcast from Cairo, the local technicians had failed to do the necessary groundwork in the studio and I read my first broadcast pieces trying to read the text on the desk in front of me while stretching out with my right hand to hold the connecting wires in a socket in the wall.   &ldquo;You sounded a bit strained&rdquo;, said Nick afterwards.   But we got better at it.   A year or two later, reporting from Jerusalem on a peace-making mission by Washington&rsquo;s Henry Kissinger, I had to make those broadcasts from a sort of cupboard &ndash; or was it the toilet? &ndash; at the King David hotel.   Nick&rsquo;s was always a reassuring voice from London.   A pity we didn&rsquo;t see much of each other after retirement, except at those now discontinued luncheon gatherings for the old hacks and other retired Reuterees.   We said we&rsquo;d get together again, and I know I&rsquo;d always be welcome to visit Nick and family, but we were living in different parts of the country and never made it.   All the very best, Nick, one last time.


&nbsp;


JOHN CHADWICK
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Nick Carter</title><dc:creator>editor@thebaron.info</dc:creator><dc:subject>MAIL</dc:subject><dc:date>2012-04-12T13:16:47+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/6f44f0791f1bdedac2ae1aa1db028164-534.php#unique-entry-id-534</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.thebaron.info/mail_files/6f44f0791f1bdedac2ae1aa1db028164-534.php#unique-entry-id-534</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nick revelled in being the self-proclaimed&nbsp;&ldquo;second meanest man in Reuters&rdquo;,&nbsp;bowing only to Jack Henry.&nbsp;  An inflated expense account claim rarely passed across his desk intact.   However his true generosity was reflected in bars and restaurants, in his home&nbsp;and the sharing of his experience and expertise with other hacks.   His parties were popular in London and abroad.&nbsp;&nbsp;


RICK NORSWORTHY
]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
</rss>
