Yahoo News Cryptic crosswords for beginners: newspapers
In the example clues below, I explain the two parts of each: the definition of the answer, given in bold type and the wordplay – the recipe for assembling its letters. In a genuine puzzle environment, of course, you also have the crossing letters, which greatly alleviate your solving load. The explanations contain links to previous entries in this series on such matters as spelling one word backwards to reveal another. And setters’ names tend to link to interviews, in case you feel like getting to know these people better.
Appropriately, we begin today’s primer with a tweet from the Guardian’s media editor:
The New York Times now has 1.1m standalone paying subscribers bringing in the equivalent of $44m a year to.... its cooking and and crossword apps alone. (Its digital news subscriptions are also booming but that's just a fact of life now as it eats the rest of the industry.)
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) August 5, 2020
While a crossword may provide respite from what’s being reported in the rest of the paper, the relationship between puzzle and host is strong. And solving occasionally asks for a tiny bit of knowledge about the business of journalism.
By far the most common reference is when the word “journalist” appears in a clue. It pretty much always turns out to be the same journalist, one whose abbreviated job title is a very useful pair of letters. It’s the editor, or rather ED. Here’s an example from Picaroon:
2d Native Americans journalist’s covered (7)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘Native Americans’ + abbrev. for a kind of ‘journalist’ ]
[ INCAS + ED ]
[ definition: covered ]
So we add the “ed.” to the “Incas” for INCASED. Another thing to keep an eye open for is references to the Guardian in Guardian clues. Here’s Paul:
1ac Fantastic flyer in the Guardian alongside other pages (7)
[ wordplay: anagram of (‘other’) PAGES next to (‘alongside’) another way of saying ‘the Guardian’ ]
[ PEGAS next to US ]
[ definition: fantastic flier ]
So “the Guardian” becomes US en route to PEGASUS; equally, as it’s done by Qaos …
8d Independent’s right to plug Guardian’s listening device (4)
[ wordplay: abbrev. for ‘independent’ & abbrev. for ‘right’ inside (‘to plug’) another way of saying ‘Guardian’ ]
[ I & R inside WE ]
… it could be WE, as part of a clue for WEIR. In another newspaper, of course, it might be the “Independent” bit pointing you at an US or WE. But the paper that appears most often is the one used here by Maskarade …
63d Worry about appearing in newspaper (4)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘about’ inside abbrev. for Financial Times (‘newspaper’) ]
[ RE in FT ]
[ definition: worry ]
… to clue FRET. (That “63 down” is not a typo, by the way: the clue’s from this year’s monster Easter puzzle, which you’d be forgiven for having missed and for which the annotated solution is here.)
That’s pretty much all the solver is generally expected to know, though there might be the odd reference to people from elsewhere in the paper, like in Qaos’s clue …
27ac According to Spooner, Toynbee cuts sweets (9)
[ wordplay: spoonerism of synonym of ‘Toynbee cuts’ ]
[ spoonerism of ‘Polly lops’ ]
[ definition: sweets ]
… for LOLLIPOPS with reference to a Guardian columnist, and this Everyman clue …
16d Bottom pinched by admirer, Observer employee? (9)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘bottom’ inside (‘pinched by’) synonym for ‘suitor’ ]
[ BED inside SUITOR ]
[ definition: Observer employee? ]
… for SUBEDITOR – and every solver should be aware of both Polly Toynbee and the importance of subeditors, surely.
Beginners: any questions? Setters and seasoned solvers: any favourite references to newspapers or important devices that I’ve missed?
• Here’s a collection of all our explainers, interviews and other helpful bits and bobs
