Relaxed plans when papers dropped journalist (5)
I believe the answer is:
eased
'relaxed' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'plans when papers dropped journalist' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'when' could be 'as' (eg 'when I walked' means 'as I walked') and 'as' is present in the answer.
'journalist' could be 'ed' (short for editor) and 'ed' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eased that I've seen before include "Made less hard" , "Relaxed" , "Alleviated" , "Allievated" , "rested" .)