Nick Carter

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 - 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 - and one of the very nicest. ■