The traditional leaving front page is generally knocked up in a spare half hour by some wags on the subs’ desk.
Not so at The Guardian, where readers’ editor Ian Mayes was treated to a fourpage supplement in honour of his departure from the job after 10 years —hundreds of copies of which were distributed around the Farringdon Road offices.
Much mirth is made in the tribute of the way Mayes used the readers’ editor billet ‒which one would imagine might have been a deskbound one ‒to enjoy a series of exotic foreign trips, largely thanks to his position as President of the Organisation of Newspaper Ombudsmen.
As editor Alan Rusbridger says on the front page: “His bosses at the newspaper had no idea that the kindly old snowhaired former sub-editor had suddenly developed an urge to explore the world.
“So it was that at the age of 83, Sir Iann (correct) set out on his first voyage of discovery. Travelling under the guise of a ‘lecturer on newspaper ethics’ he set off to explore Italy, Portugal, Spain and Germany ‒returning many months later with stories of his journeys.â€
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