THE first edition of this morning’s The Press and Journal newspaper appearing in Inverness may have included a General Election supplement with only a few results, but the paper made good with its second – by holding back printing by almost five hours, to include as many results as possible, and then transporting copies not by road but helicopter, to make up the time.
What’s more, the helicopter pilot knew exactly how important it was to get the paper delivered in good time having once – 20 years’ previously – been a P&J delivery boy.
Back then, his mode of transport was a bicycle.
Says the Bristow Helicopters 35 year-old: “The 35-minute flight went well. We landed at Dalcross [Inverness] and, within nine minutes, all 5,500 newspapers on board were unloaded – by hand.”
The second edition would ordinarily have been printed by 12.30am; this morning, it was 5.15am.
Says P&J editor, Derek Tucker: “With the magnificent help we received from Bristow, and a superb team effort right across the company, we were able to make sure that our readers in Inverness and the surrounding area woke up to a paper with more than 400 results – while the rest of the Scottish newspapers on sale there could not manage a single result between them.”
