Page One: An inspiring film for hacks facing more troubled times

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 23 September 2011 at 09:28
Tags: Journalism

In these days of double dip recessions, newspaper closures, lay-offs, pay freezes, plummeting public trust – I could go on – journalists need heroes.

And documentary: Page One – Inside The New York Times – provides a great one in the guise of media columnist David Carr.

The film, on limited general release in the UK from today, tells the story of a year in the life of the New York Times – starting in 2009 – at a time when the future of America’s greatest journalistic institution looked in peril.

Carr provides a wonderful antidote to the many new media  true believers who seem to delight in watching the demise of big media while at the same basing their parasitical businesses on big media’s content.

In a Q and A after a screening of the film in London last night, Carr – a former jailed drug addict and single father who knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity – was on irascible form. (more…)

Press Gazette digital edition now available on Android mobile phones and iPad

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 21 September 2011 at 13:36
Tags: Journalism

Press Gazette subscribers can now read the magazine on a new app for Android mobile devices as well as on iPads.

Exact Editions has launched a new app for Android phones which means readers can download the current edition of the magazine and browse an archive of Press Gazette magazine editions dating back to 2005.

Click here to download the Exactly Android app and start reading the digital edition of Press Gazette on your mobile phone.

Click here for more details about reading Press Gazette’s digital edition and becoming a subscriber.

All Press Gazette subscribers now qualify for free access to the digital edition and more than 200 archived editions of the magazine.

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(Video) Reuters hacking debate: Are editors ‘farting against the thunderstorm’ if they think they can avoid state regulation?

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 21 September 2011 at 11:18
Tags: Journalism, News of the World, new media

Leading national newspaper editors last night insisted that the system of press self-regulation can be reformed rather than scrapped.

But, as former BBC chairman of governors Sir Christopher Bland put it at the same event,  editors should not underestimate the pressure for change. After listening to their pleas that the industry can put its own house in order he said: “It is useless to fart against the thunderstorm”.  (more…)

Johann Hari plagiarism row exposes weaknesses in both PCC and national press culture

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 15 September 2011 at 09:48
Tags: Indepedent, Journalism, Journalists

The Johann Hari plagiarism row highlights a number of weaknesses both of the current system of press self regulation and of the culture of British journalism.
By making things up and stealing other people’s work Hari committed one of the worst breaches of journalistic ethics there is. But when this row surfaced back in June it was not something which the Press Complaints Commission was able to tackle.

The PCC is basically a dispute-resolution surface – but here, no-one was making a complaint to the PCC. Bloggers like Brian Whelan had merely done some digging and found out that a lot of Hari’s work was not what it purported to be. (more…)

Those Twitter-only job applications for @alangeere

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 13 September 2011 at 11:47
Tags: Journalism, Journalists

Essex Chronicle editor Alan Geere scored a canny PR coup yesterday with his announcement that applicants for a number of reporter vacancies at his group of weeklies can only apply via Twitter. (It was reported on Press Gazette, Holdthefrontpage and the Greenslade blog – in that order!).

But limiting reporters to only 140 characters in a Twitter-only application has a few drawbacks.

For one, applying via Twitter means they have to do so publicly – ruling out those who already work at other newspapers.

For another, letting those who wish to write long and verbose covering letters do so is very easy way of weeding out the wheat from the chaff. (more…)

Time for whole regional press to get out of the sex-trafficking business

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 12 September 2011 at 11:30
Tags: Journalists, local

The Ipswich sex-ads ban story again raises the issue of whether or not local newspapers should make moral judgements on who they take money from.
Who could read the comments of former policeman Neil Boast (as exclusively reported by Press Gazette) and not think that the reputation of any paper would be sullied by carrying these sort of ads?
Boast regularly raided brothels which had advertised in local newspapers: The Ipswich Evening Star and East Anglian Daily Times.
The women involved were “always trafficked” he said. According to Boast, the men using such services would say: “Look, it’s in the paper, how can it be wrong?”.
It is surprising that only now, three years after the murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich, has action been taken by the papers in the town. (more…)

Six reasons to read the September edition of Press Gazette magazine

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 29 August 2011 at 14:18
Tags: Journalism

Six of the best from the September edition of Press Gazette magazine:

• How the English riots proved that ‘citizen journalism’ is a busted flush.
• The Guardian’s Paul Lewis on his four days embedded with the rioters.
• Former Take a Break editor John Dale’s guide to running a successful campaign.
• Matt Frei on why he has left the BBC after 25 years to join Channel 4 News.
• HuffPo’s UK invasion.
• Jeremy Dear on the trail of a British journalist who went missing in Costa Rica two years ago.

Click here for details about how to subscribe to Press Gazette - which now includes free access to our digital edition archive dating back to 2005.

Press standards shake-up needs to crack down on journalistic looters

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 26 August 2011 at 10:17
Tags: Journalism, Journalists, Law, Magazines, National Newspapers

Reading about the thousands of pounds worth of free stuff accepted by an un-named magazine fashion editor in The Times this week put me in mind of a particularly successful looter.

Swag trousered by the magazine stylist included: a Blackberry in its case, a pair of diamond earrings and an Apple laptop. Rioters who made off with far less earlier this month are now serving a lengthy prison sentence. (more…)

New phone-hack documents put James Murdoch in firing line over ‘misleading’ testimony

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 16 August 2011 at 17:24
Tags: Journalism, Journalists, News of the World

Just when we thought the silly season was finally here (see stories in all media this morning that watching TV is as bad for your health as smoking) – the Commons media select committee releases a treasure trove of new documents related to phone-hacking and the News of the World.

Much has been made already today about the Clive Goodman letter from 2007 which has come to light , implicating many other News International executives in hacking, including then editor Andy Coulson.

Explosive stuff. But it should at least be remembered that Goodman wrote this at a time when he was trying to persuade the company to give him a hefty unfair dismissal settlement and that other documents released today show that Harbottle and Lewis’  trawl of company emails could find no evidence to back up Goodman’s claims.

At least as interesting for my money is former News International legal boss Jon Chapman’s statement that James Murdoch’s testimony to MPs was “very misleading”.

Chapman, and Harbottle and Lewis, both condemn the way that News Corp has used that trawl of emails – carried out over two weeks in relation to the Goodman unfair dismissal case – to say that the law firm gave the company a clean bill of health in 2007.

According to Chapman and the law firm, there was another review carried out by solicitors Burton Copeland in 2006. This was apparently the”rigorous” investigation cited by Les Hinton in evidence to MPs in March 2007 to uphold the lone rogue journalist defence.

It seems that MPs need to get hold of that document immediately. It is the first I have heard of it. Why has it never been mentioned by News Corp before?

Just when it looked like James Murdoch might be in the clear, phone-hacking has come back to cause him major problems.

Football’s press freedom grab – that dodgy accreditation agreement in detail

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 11 August 2011 at 12:25
Tags: Broadcasting, National Newspapers